Chris Froome, the best stage racer in cycling, suddenly can't get a break at the Tour de France, a race he's won four times.

After Wednesday's stage 17, Froome was riding his bike back down the finishing climb to his bus when a police officer apparently mistook him for a spectator and, in a moment of confusion, knocked the champ to the ground.

Froome was visibly upset, yelling "F--- you!" at the cop:

There were photos on Twitter of Froome's bike on the ground, as well as his personal bodyguard's:

"It was a misunderstanding — Chris is fine," a Team Sky representative said, according to the AFP.

Earlier, Froome's teammate and the Tour leader Geraint Thomas had his own trouble when a spectator appeared to reach his arm out directly into the race leader's way:

There have been a number of similar incidents happening to Froome and his team at this Tour. As the AFP reported, "a mid a general feeling of suspicion surrounding Sky and their sheer domination of the Tour, Froome has been spat at and manhandled, Thomas has been booed off the podium, and some of Sky's staff have also faced abuse."

But Froome's troubles began long before the Tour started.

He almost didn't get to race because of a leaked positive test result revealed he'd been over the allowed limit for the asthma drug salbutamol at last year's Vuelta a España. At the last minute, after months of waiting, he was cleared.

The matter seemed to put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, and it's been wreaking a fair bit of havoc on him and his Sky team on the roads around France.

As the AFP also reported, the world cycling chief David Lappartient called on Sky boss Dave Brailsford to stop fanning the flames after he blamed abuse of his team and riders on a "French cultural thing."

This week, the US Anti-Doping Agency's Travis Tygart, the same guy who took down Lance Armstrong, told the BBC that the handling of Froome's asthma drug case has been a "blow" to the World Anti-Doping Agency's credibility.

Jonathan Vaughters, the boss of the EF-Drapac team, told Business Insider at the Tour that Sky was "opaque, arrogant, abusive"

The defending Tour champ came into cycling's biggest race on July 7 as the hot favorite, but after a less-than-stellar performance in the Alps and Pyrenees, he is sitting in third place, 2 minutes and 31 seconds behind teammate Thomas, who looks virtually set to win the race on Sunday.

SEE ALSO: The Tour de France bikes, ranked

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