Riders with Britain's Geraint Thomas, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey Britain's wait on the road after a farmer's protest interrupted the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race... (Associated Press) 
 
 Riders with Britain's Geraint Thomas, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey Britain's wait on the road after a farmer's protest interrupted the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 218 kilometers (135.5 miles) with start in Carcassonne and finish in Bagneres-de-Luchon, France,... (Associated Press) 
 
 BAGNERES DE-LUCHON, France (AP) — Chris Froome was among riders whose eyes needed treatment for tear gas when police intervened to disperse farmers protesting against funding cuts by disrupting the Tour de France on Tuesday. 
 
 Bales of hay blocked the road 30 kilometers into the 218-kilometer stage from Carcassonne to Bagneres De-Luchon. Tour organizers said police used tear gas to disperse the protesters as the peloton approached. 
 
 Fourt-time champion Froome, race leader Geraint Thomas, and world champion Peter Sagan were among those affected by the chemical. Froome was treated with eye drops and Sagan poured water over his face to clean his eyes. 
 
 Stage 16 resumed after a 15-minute delay. 
 
 According to French media, the small group of farmers from the local Ariege department were protesting against the reduction of European Union funding. 
 
 This Tour has been marred by incidents. 
 
 Race organizers have struggled to deal with angry fans protesting Froome's participation. After fans threw flares at riders in the climb to the ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, Tour organizers banned the use of smoke flares for the rest of the race. 
 
 Froome raced all season under the cloud of a potential ban for using twice the permitted level of salbutamol during his victory at the Spanish Vuelta in September. He was cleared only just before the Tour. He said he has been repeatedly spat at since the race started, and spectators have punched him and tried to make him fall off his bike. 
 
 Froome sits second in the general classification, 1 minute, 39 seconds behind Sky teammate Thomas. 
 
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 AP Sports writer Andrew Dampf and Associated Press photographer Peter Dejong contributed to this story 
 
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 More Tour de France coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/TourdeFrance ||||| Tour de France: Tear gas, mountain crashes on chaotic 16th stage 
 
 Updated 
 
 Tear gas in riders' eyes. A farmers' protest blocking the road. Two key crashes on dangerous descents. 
 
 The only thing lacking from the wild 16th stage of the Tour de France was a shake-up in the overall standings. 
 
 Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe took advantage of his downhill skills to win the first of three mountainous legs in the Pyrenees, which was briefly interrupted when police used tear gas to disperse a farmers' protest that had blocked the road with bales of hay. 
 
 The overall standings were unchanged. Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey, second-placed Chris Froome and third-placed Tom Dumoulin all crossed together nearly nine minutes behind. 
 
 The farmers' protest occurred 30 kilometres into the 218km leg from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon. 
 
 Thomas, Froome, world champion Peter Sagan and other riders were treated with eye drops due to the tear gas amid a 15-minute delay. 
 
 "I just felt my throat and nose were burning, eyes were burning afterward," Froome said. 
 
 "But I think quite a lot of riders were in a similar situation. 
 
 "Thankfully the effect didn't last long. 
 
 "It was just a temporary thing with stinging and burning." 
 
 It was the latest in a series of incidents involving spectators during this year's race, with Team Sky riders being pushed and spat on and 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali having his back broken in a crash when a fan caught their camera strap on his handlebars. 
 
 "We feel safe. Obviously on some of the climbs not everyone's our fans, but we don't feel threatened," Thomas said. 
 
 "It's hard in cycling when you're just on the open road. It's not like football or something. 
 
 "Everyone's doing the best they can and hopefully everyone can just behave and let us race." 
 
 The small group of farmers from the Aude department were protesting a planned reduction of European Union funding, according to French authorities. 
 
 "We are not going to lock the riders in a stadium or a tennis court," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. 
 
 "People should not block the road, no matter what causes they are fighting for." 
 
 Thomas remained 1 minute, 39 seconds ahead of four-time champion Froome, with Dumoulin 1:50 back. 
 
 Dramatic crash on killer descent 
 
 Alaphilippe took the lead when Adam Yates crashed on a technical descent in the finale. 
 
 "I knew the finale was tricky," Alaphilippe said. 
 
 "I was sad for (Yates) but it could have happened to me, too, because I took a lot of risks … I went all out for 220 kilometres today. I'm exhausted." 
 
 Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert was leading when he crashed earlier in the stage while descending from the Col de Portet-d'Aspet, hitting a wall and flipping off his bike spectacularly but avoiding major injury. 
 
 It was the same descent where Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died during the 1995 Tour. 
 
 "I thought I was broken everywhere," said Gilbert, a teammate of Alaphilippe's on the Quick-Step team. 
 
 "But I ended up more or less okay." 
 
 However, Quick-Step later announced that Gilbert, a former world champion, was withdrawing from the Tour with a fracture on his left kneecap. 
 
 "This isn't how I wanted to finish my Tour and leaving it like this really hurts," Gilbert said. 
 
 Alaphilippe also won the 10th stage and is wearing the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification leader. 
 
 Yates led Alaphilippe by 20 seconds at the top of the Col du Portillon climb 10km from the finish but lost control with 6 kilometres to go, falling to the pavement on a left turn and sliding across the road. 
 
 "You never know what's coming up on some of these corners," Yates said. 
 
 "There was a bit of downforce or something and I came down, that's all there is to it. 
 
 "Morale's pretty damaged right now. When you come so close to winning a stage of the Tour, it's pretty devastating," added Yates, who won the young rider classification in the Tour two years ago. 
 
 Alaphilippe, who was already gaining ground on Yates, quickly passed the British rider and had time to celebrate before the finish, smiling at the crowd and shaking his head in disbelief. 
 
 Spanish rider Gorka Izaguirre finished second, 15 seconds behind, and Yates crossed third with the same time. 
 
 The race remains in the Pyrenees on Wednesday for what could be the most challenging stage of the Tour, a 65km leg from Bagneres-de Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet that features three gruelling climbs, including an uphill finish —and hardly a stretch of flat road. 
 
 "It's going to be massively decisive," Thomas said. 
 
 "That last climb is possibly the toughest climb in the Tour — 16km [long], 2,200 metres (altitude). There's definitely going to be some splits." 
 
 AP 
 
 Topics: sport, cycling, france 
 
 First posted ||||| This article is over 5 months old 
 
 Yellow jersey Geraint Thomas, his Sky teammate Chris Froome and world champion Peter Sagan were among a number of Tour de France riders affected by a spray used by police to break up a farmers’ protest which caused stage 16 of the race to be stopped. 
 
 Farmers rolled large hay bales into the road 29km into Tuesday’s stage from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon. 
 
 UCI president rebukes Dave Brailsford for criticising French Tour public Read more 
 
 Police then used a spray to tackle some of the protesters as the race approached, and it appeared to get into the eyes of a number of riders. 
 
 Team Sky’s Thomas was seen wiping his eyes while Sagan used his water bottles to wash his. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said Froome was one of a number of riders to have eye-drops applied. 
 
 The race was stopped completely while several riders received medical treatment from the doctor’s car at the rear of the peloton. 
 
 After a 15-minute interval, the race resumed with a short neutralised section before the flag was dropped once more with 33km of the 218km distance covered. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Team Education First Drapac Cannondale rider Simon Clarke of Australia receives eye drops. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA 
 
 Farmers’ protests are nothing new at the Tour, but the incident will add to the intense security situation in this year’s edition. 
 
 Team Sky’s Chris Froome was jostled and spat at on Alpe d’Huez, while the 2014 winner Vincenzo Nibali saw his race ended after he was brought down in a tangle with a fan on the same mountain.
– Because Tour de France bicyclists needed another physical challenge: Cops accidentally hit some of them with tear gas on Tuesday. It happened as officers were breaking up a farmers' protest that interrupted the 16th stage, reports Australia's ABC. The farmers, upset at slashed government funding, had blocked the road with hay bales—and themselves—as the main pack of riders approached. Officers clearing the road used liberal doses of tear gas or pepper spray, and it was still in the air by the time riders arrived. The race had to stop completely for 15 minutes as several riders received treatment, mainly drops to their eyes, reports the Guardian. Among them was British cyclist Chris Froome, who isn't having an easy time of it at the tour. Froome is riding under the cloud of doping suspicions, even though he was cleared just before the start of the race. He says he's been repeatedly spat on and jostled by spectators along the way, reports the AP.