Sir Dave Brailsford has apologised for describing spitting and abuse on the roadside as a “French cultural thing”.
Team Sky have received a hostile reception from some fans during this Tour de France and Brailsford, the team’s principal, launched a scathing attack on French cycling fans during an extraordinary press conference in Carcassonne on Monday.
The UCI president David Lappartient responded on Tuesday, criticising Brailsford for “oiling the fire”, and after Wednesday’s stage 17, on which Sky’s Geraint Thomas finished third to tighten his grip on the yellow jersey, Brailsford attempted to row back on his comments.
“My intention was never to criticise the entire French nation,” he said. “I’m a Francophile. I think anybody who knows me knows that wasn’t my intention but I was pretty agitated about the attention we were getting.
“Of course, I don’t believe that spitting is a French cultural thing, but my point was that we only get that kind of thing at the Tour de France.”
Brailsford also repeated his point about safety. On Monday he cited feelings of intimidation in one of his younger members of staff as an example of the effect the toxic atmosphere was having on Team Sky, and this time he referred to his debutant Colombian rider, Egan Bernal.
"The issue is security and I was trying to bring that to everybody's attention. I feel very strongly about the security of this team.
“I chose to bring young Egan here and then halfway through I thought I might really regret that decision - and that was nothing to do with racing his bike, or performance, it was just about the experience he was having."
