Tour de France leader Froome not bothered by crowd abuse

CHRIS Froome has brushed off concerns over the treatment he received from the galleries on stage 15 of the Tour de France.

Sunday’s trek to Le Puy-en-Velay passed through the Auvergne region – home to yellow jersey contender Romain Bardet.

While the cheers rang out for the local favourite, there were only jeers for his chief rival.

Bardet was having none of it.

“I heard that Froome was abused at times,” the Frenchman told reporters on Monday.

“I’m really sorry, he’s a champion who should be respected, who I respect as a rival and who doesn’t deserve that treatment.”

On track for his fourth general classification victory in five years, Froome was not at all fazed by the parochial support for the hometown hero.

“It’s to be expected if this is Romain Bardet’s home stage,” he said.

Nothing worth having comes easy ? #MondayMotivation #TdF2017 #TDF #cycling
? @Yorick_32 pic.twitter.com/wcVJkG1258

— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) July 17, 2017

“It’s understandable that all the locals around here are supporting him – that’s bike racing.

“The support on the roads has been fantastic so far and I want to thank everybody – it’s been a great atmosphere.”

Froome enters the final week of Le Tour 2017 as the roaring -250 favourite in the outright betting at CrownBet.com.au.

Bardet is next in line at +550, even though he is five seconds adrift of the second-placed Fabio Aru (+800).

Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran (+1000) is the only other man within a minute of the race leader.

2017 Tour de France outright odds

-250 – Chris Froome

+550 – Romain Bardet

+800 – Fabio Aru

+1000 – Rigoberto Uran

+2000 – Mikel Landa

+3300 – Daniel Martin

+15000 – Nairo Quintana, Simon Yates

+20000 – Alberto Contador

+50000 – Louis Meintjes, Pierre-Roger Latour, George Bennett

Market courtesy of CrownBet.com.au

Matthews in green jersey hunt despite unscheduled pitstop

Michael Matthews struck a big blow in the points classification with his win on stage 14.

His eventful campaign took yet another turn on Sunday when he gave back some time with an emergency toilet break mid-race.

Even so, the rest stop on Monday found the Australian in high spirits after an excellent weekend all-round for Team Sunweb.

Going into the second rest day of @Tourdefrance17 with my head held high. pic.twitter.com/EKsYOnDDwI

— michael matthews (@blingmatthews) July 17, 2017

CrownBet rates Matthews as a +375 chance to steal the green jersey from Marcel Kittel (-555.56), who leads by 79 points with six stages to go.

It is a long way from there to Andre Greipel, who occupies the third line of betting at +6600.

Those three riders are among the favourites to take out stage 16 on Tuesday.

Stage 16 betting: Le Puy-en-Velay/Romans-sur-Isere

+175 – Marcel Kittel

+1000 – Edvald Boasson Hagen, Michael Matthews

+1200 – Andre Greipel

+1400 – Dylan Groenewegen, Alexander Kristoff

+1600 – John Degenkolb, Greg van Avermaet

+2500 – Nacer Bouhanni

+3300 – Steve Cummings, Philippe Gilbert, Oliver Naesen

+4000 – Davide Cimolai, Sonny Colbrelli, Stefan Kung, Tony Martin

+5000 – Sylvain Chavanel, Tony Gallopin

More quoted at CrownBet.com.au