Richie Porte has revisited an incident on Alpe d'Huez at the Tour de France, all of 10 years ago, when Irish fans were accused of abusing Sky Procycling riders and staff during stage 18 of the race. The Australian, now retired, has now doubled down, claiming Irish fans were responsible for abuse on the day.
The allegations, made by Sunday Times journalist David Walsh in his coverage of the event in 2013, were controversial. And while Walsh appeared to climb down and apologise to the Irish fans on Twitter at the time, he soon backtracked.
Writing a feature piece at the time, Walsh referred to Sky’s Irish doctor, Alan Farrell, saying when he drove up Alpe d'Huez on the day in one of the team’s cars he felt under siege, as did the occupants in the team’s other vehicles. Walsh claimed Farrell had tears in his eyes as he relayed the abused the team had been subjected to on the climb.
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Walsh also reported - among other allegations - that fans from one Irish club had sought out Sky team boss, Dave Brailsford, at the race to apologise. However, that club issued a statement to stickybottle at the time strongly denying that claim.
Walsh - who was embedded with Sky Procycling at the time and gave them a clear bill of health on doping - reported eggs were smashed against the team’s cars. He added beer was thrown at the cars and when the vehicles slowed down enough on some points of the climb fans by the roadside rocked the cars from side to side.
“The abuse was worst at those parts of the climb populated by Irish and Dutch fans,” wrote Walsh in 2013, before adding that one large sign on Irish corner read “Froome dope”, even though the sign was in French and read “Froome dopé”.
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A large number of Irish fans present at Irish Corner 10 spoke to us at the time, saying a group of French fans had taken up a position on Irish Corner and launched abuse at the Sky riders and vehicles. The Irish fans told stickybottle at the time they were being blamed for the actions of the French group targeting Sky as its leader Chris Froome was in the yellow jersey and riding towards overall victory.
But now, in a podcast looking back on the 2013 Tour, Richie Porte has revisited that day. He said James Murdoch of the Sky broadcasting company - sponsors of the team - was in one of the team car's at the time with team directeur, Nicolas Portal. Porte said Portal had relayed to him how the fans targeted the team on the climb, especially at the Dutch and Irish corners.
"Nico Portal told me… you know Nico was a gentle kind of a fella but Murdoch was in the car just going 'this is absolutely bonkers'," Porte has now told The Cycling Podcast, which is publishing a series of podcasts on the first Tour it ever covered, the 2013 edition.
Porte continued: "The crowd were going for the car, you know, like kicking it and hitting it and throwing on sorts of things on it. And Nico was just like 'well, I can't wait for them to get out of the way'. And he said, you know, you could hear their feet going under the car on the way up. It was just absolutely bonkers.
"I think it's quite of a funny one now… you look back and (at) Dutch corner we copped it. And then there was the Irish corner, you know, and then people like (ask) 'how do you know the people who were abusing you were Irish?'
"It's like, you can't mistake that accent, can you? You know, the Irish have a certain way of pronouncing the F-bomb or the C-bomb. And that's what we were getting heckled with on the way up."
While Porte mentions Irish Corner 10 - Irish fans congregating on the 10th hairpin of the climb - the allegations at the time were not specifically about Irish corner. Instead, Walsh alleged those areas of the climb where Irish and Dutch fans were located were especially problematic for Sky Procycling. Walsh did mention Irish Corner, but only in the context of the "Froome dope" sign, which actually read "Froome dopé" and was French sign.
