FROOME HACKED
Team Sky star’s data stolen to ‘taint’ him
TeAM Sky believe their computers have been hacked to obtain Chris Froome’s personal performance data and discredit this year’s leader of the Tour de France.
Sir Dave Brailsford, the Sky team principal, revealed yesterday that lawyers have been instructed to examine how the files on Froome, which have high-level security access, started to appear on social media and other outlets.
Only last week, one report revealed Froome’s performance data on his ascent of Mont Ventoux in 2013 — a ride that was central to his victory in the Tour that year. It noted that in a fivesecond burst on a punishing gradient he accelerated from 19kph to 31kph.
Froome has described those who claim such statistics point to doping as ‘clowns’ and yesterday Brailsford was just as dismissive, although he said he was concerned by what he believes is a serious security breach.
Asked if he was ready for the inevitable doping questions about Froome, who leads the Tour going into today’s first mountain stage, Brailsford said: ‘It’s part of the game, isn’t it? If he does well tomorrow, for the rest of the Tour it’s “how do you know he’s not doping?” ’
Brailsford was then asked if there was any information the team could provide to demonstrate that Froome is riding clean.
‘We’ve thought about it but again we’ll be back to pace of climbs, physiology, power data, etc, etc,’ he added. ‘Actually we have done something about it, but we think someone has hacked into our training data and got Chris’s files, so we’ve got some legal guys on the case. ethically and morally, if you are going to accuse someone of doping then don’t cheat.
‘But the question of how to prove a negative is always going to be a difficult one. I used to worry about it a lot more but I don’t any more. It’s part of the game. Just try to be honest, tell the truth, be open.
‘I’d much prefer to be sitting here this year thinking “We might get some s**t about this” than last year thinking “We’re not good enough”. That was way more painful.’
Froome and his Sky team-mates have been impressive in the opening nine days of the Tour, so much so that the British rider takes a commanding lead over his main rivals into today’s stage.
But it makes him a target of suspicion. Brailsford said he confronted French press photographers hiding behind bushes here in Pau on Sunday night apparently trying to get a picture of Froome boarding his boss’s motorhome.
Brailsford has been banned from using private motorhomes rather than hotels for his riders and was convinced an attempt was being made to discover if Froome was breaking the rules.
There are echoes of cycling’s past here. In their efforts to expose Lance Armstrong, a French film crew once followed US Postal doctors to sift through discarded medical waste.
Brailsford insists Froome’s progression as a rider is simply down to his ‘genes and physiology’. And in an interview before the Tour, Froome hit out at the way his critics were interpreting his performance data.
he said: ‘From what I’ve seen from some of the clowns interpreting (power) data and saying “You did this for 10 minutes so you have to be doping”, it’s so unhelpful. It can’t paint the full picture.
‘If the UCI want to collect power data as a way of explaining what’s humanly possible without doping, then I would be very happy. But to release it into the world for people to rip apart — you don’t take into account wind speed, temperature, how hard you’ve ridden, all those variable factors. But I’ve got nothing to hide.’
Froome’s data points to an unusually low heart rate.
But he insisted: ‘My heart rate doesn’t go very high. I get to about 168 and that’s going flat- out. I can’t get much higher. It’s very low. A lot of my team-mates get over 200. I don’t really understand why, myself. I know I’ve got a large lung capacity, over eight litres. Average capacity for my height and weight is nearer six litres.’