Tour de France riders refuse to sprint

Tour de France riders staged something of a protest after an oil spill made the roads slippery during the second stage in Brussels.

The main pack, fronted by overall leader Fabian Cancellera of Switzerland, decided not to sprint to the finishing-line, after a massive crash occurred earlier in the day.

“There is too much on the line,” said cyclist Chris Horner. “It’s dangerous on the dry, more dangerous on the wet and sooner or later riders are going to protest. That’s what you saw today,”

One of the competitors who fell was Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck, team mate of Fabian Cancellara.

Schleck said, “There was something on the road and the finale today was just too much. I believe nobody wants to win the Tour thanks to the crash of another contender.”

Seven-time champion, Lance Armstrong, didn’t believe that the lull was necessary.

“It’s part of cycling,” he said, “Liege-Bastogne-Liege has been around for a hundred years and they do that on the snow. For whatever reason the road was slippery and it’s by no means any fault of the organisers. It’s just bad luck.”