Hopefully everyone can just behave - Thomas, Froome react to stage-16 protests

Paris, July 25: Geraint Thomas was among the Tour de France riders whose stage 16 was disrupted by protesters on Tuesday (July 24) and the Team Sky man hopes the remainder of the race will pass without incident.

Inside the opening 30 kilometres of the 218km route from Carcassone to Bagneres-de-Luchon, a group of farmers attempted to block the road with hay bales, seemingly in response to the French government's plans to reduce the number of areas that are set to receive agricultural subsidies.

Police opted to use pepper spray to disperse the trouble-makers, but the breeze blew the gas back in the direction of the peloton, causing much of the field to require medical attention while the race was neutralised for a short period.

Riders were competing again within five kilometres, Julian Alaphilippe eventually claiming victory after capitalising on Adam Yates' late crash while Thomas retained his advantage of one minute and 39 seconds over Sky team-mate Chris Froome in the general classification.

🏁 - 187 km
The peloton has been slowed down by protesters. The race is temporarily neutralized. ⚠️
Le peloton a été ralenti par des manifestants. La course est momentanément neutralisée. ⚠️#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/o3ScD9SHZJ

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 24, 2018

This year's Tour has already seen the likes of Froome targeted by fans, and Thomas hopes there will be no further problems over the closing stages.

"I think it's hard when it's just on the open roads, it's not a closed stadium so it's a lot harder," he said.

"The police and ASO [Tour organisers Amaury Sport Organisation] are doing the best they can I suppose. We don't feel unsafe, it's just unfortunate sometimes but I think everyone is doing the best they can. Hopefully everyone can just behave."

"I just sprayed some water in the eyes and water in the face," added Froome.

"My throat, nose and eyes were burning afterwards, but I think quite a lot of riders were in a similar situation so I think we were all grateful for the temporary neutralisation just to have a couple of kilometres to clear our eyes, nose and throat out and then the race continued again.

"Thankfully the effects didn't last long but temporarily everything was stinging and burning. It wore off pretty quickly."

Tour director Christian Prudhomme called on spectators to behave themselves, given the already dangerous nature of the event - evidenced by Philippe Gilbert's crash when leading on Tuesday that ultimately led to the Quick-Step Floors man withdrawing from the race.

Unfortunately, @PhilippeGilbert won't start tomorrow. Thanks for ride, congratulations for your courage, Philippe! 💛
Malheureusement, Philippe Gilbert ne prendra pas le départ demain. Merci pour tout et bon rétablissement, Philippe ! 💛#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/QHfrak79C8

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 24, 2018

"Being a cyclist is a really tough job," Prudhomme said. "We saw that with the Philippe Gilbert crash. They take risks every day.

"There is really nothing we can do with [the protests], but we are just really disappointed. Maybe we should've sensed there was going to be danger and maybe we should've acted quicker. [But] people should respect the riders and respect the race."