Froome has urine thrown in his face at Tour de France

Peter Sagan might be the unluckiest rider at the Tour de France.

But this spectator was yelling “doper!” at Chris Froome and the liquid couldn’t have been more unwelcome. The Tinkoff-Saxo rider now has 305 points, with Andre Greipel of Loto, his closest contender on 261 points.

A spectator yelling “doper!” hurled a cup of urine at Chris Froome, the Tour de France leader said, on Saturday’s Stage 14 won by fellow British rider Stephen Cummings.

“That’s extremely disappointing. Unfortunately I think a lot of the reporting on the race has been very irresponsible”.

A Tour doctor then patched him up on the move, wrapping his wounds in bandages as Peraud gripped the speeding medical auto.

“That’s unacceptable on so many levels”, said Froome. Porte suggested journalists may be putting riders in danger by “whipping up all the rubbish that they are”.

“I gave a talk this morning on Mandela Day and the significance of Mandela Day and what he’s done in the world and to South Africa, and our team was so pumped”, said boss Doug Ryder.

Asked to name specific articles which were, in his view, fuelling some fans’ ire, Froome said: “Those individuals [writing the reports containing speculation] know who they are”.

“Maybe in 10 years’ time they’re going to see that these victories are legitimate”.

This is not the first time that Froome has been targeted by a spectator at the Tour.

Live coverage will once again begin at 8 a.m. ET on NBCSN with racing getting started at 6:35 a.m. Live online streaming is available through the NBC Sports Live Extra app and NBC’s Tour de France web package, though the former can only be used on mobile devices and the latter requires purchase.

In the lingering atmosphere of distrust, Froome’s repeated assurances that he is clean have fallen on deaf ears.

The final climb isn’t long, at 3 kilometers (just under 2 miles), but is very steep with an average 10-percent gradient.

“Every little second will help”, Froome said.

An early breakaway did its best to get out far enough in front to hold off the peloton, and the overall leaders were content to let them go.

Quintana rose to second by besting Tejay van Garderen by 39 seconds.

It was a successful day on the bike for Froome, who believes Quintana is his most likely rival for top spot on the podium a week on Sunday as the race heads towards the Alps.

The stage was marked by a hard climb at the finish which shuffled the general classification ranking.

This year, Team MTN-Qhubeka made history as the first African-registered team to take part in the Tour de France.

Steve Cummings on the final climb of stage 14.

Romain Bardet attacked on the final climb at the end of the 178.5km stage from Rodez to Mende with Thibaut Pinot chasing him down. I just hope it doesn’t interfere with the racing.