All eyes were on Team Sky's Chris Froome on Day 1 of the Tour de France on Saturday.
The Briton was recently cleared of any wrongdoing by the Union Cycliste Internationale after a sample taken at last year's Vuelta a Espana showed twice the legal level of Salbutamol.
Off the Ball's Ger Gilroy was on the ground in France as the Tour kicked off and speaking on Saturday's show, he said: "The big story today was obviously all about Chris Froome and that was his first appearance today in the French public - booed at the first available opportunity, booed along the route, came off his bike...not a great start from Team Sky.
Great work from the MC at the ceremonial signing on ahead of the start of Le Tour as @chrisfroome gets his first taste of how the French crowds will respond to him. Keep talking loudly! pic.twitter.com/2xxc2ImYUK
— Ger Gilroy (@gergilroy) July 7, 2018
"I'm sure it must be annoying for him considering this is the best rider in the world who has just won four Tours de France but the French public are not buying the bullshit that Sky are selling and they're not buying any of the 'BS' that Chris Froome is selling too - so they have made their mind up about what they think.
"There's loads of 'Froome Out' signs along the road as well - there's a few British flags but there's loads of other British riders too from Wales and England who are riding in the race.
"He's fairly stoic - he tends not to give that much away. He didn't linger very long - a lot of the other riders would have waved out to the crowd. It's a very ceremonial thing - you cycle up a podium - you're the only one there when it happens. The MC is rabbiting on in the background and then you come down and you go back and you have that very gentle start for the first 10 km and then they go off and race the race.
"Today is obviously only the first day. In the mountains, assuming he makes it that far - it's going to be a daily occurrence, an hourly occurrence the team are going to have to deal with.
"He's had urine thrown at him in the past - it's going to be ratcheted up again this year because the French people don't really believe he should be in the race."
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