Brailsford blasts motor doping insinuations
A French journalist earned the ire of Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford when he hinted that the reason Froome hadn't already motored up the road this year was because there was no hidden engine helping him. Brailsford didn't take the insinuation kindly.
“Finding an engine in a bike is a pretty simple thing to do in this day and age," said Brailsford. "The technology used to beam the [television] pictures up to the satellite is a lot more complex, and used on a day-to-day basis, than finding a bloody motor in a bike. You just need the right tech to find it. It’s binary, you’ve either got an engine in your bike or you haven’t.
Brailsford added that Team Sky was under intense scrutiny.
"Froome’s bike has been tested more than everyone else’s, we get tested every day. We actually had an email from the UCI saying thank you for being the most cooperative team out of everybody when it comes to bike checks and mechanical checking." he said.
“If someone is stupid enough come here with a motor in their bike for sure they will get caught. I think the whole debate about bike testing is something we need to reconsider because there is so much testing now.”
Giant-Alpecin brings Sunweb onboard as sponsor
Giant-Alpecin announced that European holiday company Sunweb will be the team's first-name sponsor for three years from the beginning of 2017.
The company has been a minor sponsor since 2015, and sees stepping up to be a top-line sponsor as a natural progression of its association with the team.
Gert De Caluwe, CEO of Sunweb says: “We see this partnership as a natural fit. For 25 years is has been in our DNA to take care of millions of travellers. Our aim is to fulfill this caretaker role also for this team and the whole cycling community.”
Stage 9 stage winner Tom Dumoulin was delighted that the team's future has been secured for a few more years in an increasingly unstable funding environment.
"This is huge news for everyone in the team. It is fantastic to see that this partnership offers us the stability needed to continue the great strides we have made over recent years.
It is fantastic that such a recognised organisation as Sunweb sees the financial potential of our sport in general and supports our team’s specific goals and overall vision.”
Prudhomme: more respect for riders, s'il vous plait
Tour supremo Christian Prudhomme has called on spectators to respect the riders after two clashes in as many days.
“Everybody, including the media, needs to say once again: ‘Please respect the riders, please stay on the side of the road'," said Prudhomme. "We have many adverts on the radio, TV and in the newspapers, everyone needs to ask the fans not to run with the riders.”
Prudhomme's comments follow an incident on stage 8 where Chris Froome punched a spectator who threatened to bring him down, as well as a Stage 9 incident where Kiwi rider George Bennett shoulder-barged another roadside fan.
However, Prudhomme insisted that the Tour would never be fully fenced off.
"There will be no day when there will be 3,500 kilometres of barriers It is the only sport where you can have this link between the fans and the riders so we have to keep that," he added. "Every year, we have more barriers, in eight or 10 climbs we have 600 or 700 metres of barriers. It didn’t exist three years ago."
