Froome was knocked off his bike after stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday.
Pictures emerged after the stage of Froome – wearing a grey jacket over his race jersey – responding angrily after the police officer tried to grab him as he was rolling back from the summit finish on the Col du Portet in the direction of the Team Sky bus.
He was then seen to gesticulate towards the office before shouting ‘f**k you’.
“I was the first rider to come down the descent and one of the gendarmes grabbed my arm as I was passing,” Froome said.
“Obviously he thought I was a spectator going down the race route or something so he grabbed me. I was going at some speed so I came obviously, but it was just a misunderstanding.”
Froome has been jostled and spat at by fans on the Tour so far, and admitted he did not immediately realise what was going on when the officer grabbed him.
“Initially I thought, ‘What’s this?!’ as I just felt my handlebars go as I was passing. I didn’t know what it was then but as soon as I stood up I understood.
“The biggest factor was that I was the first rider down. It wasn’t as if I was picked out of a group of riders and singled out, it was just a misunderstanding.
“I was wearing a big rain jacket and probably didn’t look like I was a rider.”
Froome rides to and from stage starts and finishes alongside a Team Sky security man to minimise the risk of incidents, and he too was brought down.
“He also came off,” Froome said.
“The bike was broken which was frustrating but other than that there was no damage done.”