Threats, abuse and suspicion ...Froome can’t shake off slurs
BY the time Chris Froome and his Team Sky colleagues rode into Paris two years ago to celebrate a second British Tour de France victory in as many years, they had been assaulted by spectators so frequently their backs were covered in bruises.
‘Geraint Thomas had a fractured pelvis and still got knocks on the back,’ recalled Michelle Froome, the wife of the current Tour leader and someone who earlier this week said she feared for the safety of her husband on today’s final mountain stage; one that concludes with the 21 hairpins that form the iconic, often chaotic, climb of Alpe d’Huez.
‘In 2013 most of the Sky guys got off their bikes and had bruises down their back. They’ve dealt with it in the past but with Richie Porte getting punched, it seems there’s been a level of aggression there’s not been before. And a lot of insinuations about doping that’s gone further than before. Not even Lance Armstrong had to put up with this and he was a drugs cheat. My worry is whether Chris finishes safely.’
Two days earlier Froome had felt their unborn child kick i nside Michelle’s tummy for the first time. The baby boy — due in 20 weeks — is something to look forward to. First, though, he has to complete the job of becoming the first Briton to win the world’s toughest sporting event twice, against a backdrop of suspicion and abuse.
Former riders will argue that this is nothing new. Earlier this week, three-time Tour champion Greg LeMond recalled to Sportsmail how he f eared being poisoned by someone in his own team because his colleague — and main rival — was the great French rider Bernard Hinault.
‘When the Tour organiser tells you to watch what you eat and drink you take it seriously,’ he said. Even LeMond recognises, however, that there is now more of a reluctance to celebrate today’s champions; that Froome and his contemporaries ride in a post-Armstrong era when everything is questioned.
Some of the abuse has taken on a sinister edge. Beyond Porte being punched and Froome being drenched in urine and spit, physical threats have been made on social media.
But of greater concern to Froome and his Sky bosses are the thinly veiled accusations of doping, one of which came on France TV with a leading French sports physiologist suggesting the British rider’s power data on the ascent of La Pierre-Saint-Martin possibly pointed to cheating.
David Millar, a reformed doper, sees this as a serious affront to what the British team are trying to achieve in cycling. ‘It’s bull****. It’s sad to see,’ he said. ‘Life’s not fair but I really don’t think those guys deserve that.
‘ They j ust work harder than everybody else. I know Lance used to say that but it’s true with these guys. They are operating on a global scale in a cottage industry.’
It is precisely that attitude that might be part of the problem, however.
There is a feeling on the continent that the Brits think they are the professionals among a bunch of amateurs when they are only six years in the sport.
The messages emanating from Sky may have been a bit misguided at times. The public declaration that they would win the Tour within five years. The focus on ‘marginal gains’ and the constant preaching that, unlike those before them, they can win clean.
LeMond believes Sky’s PR could have been better. ‘ When you hear someone say “I eat better”, it’s bull,’ he said. ‘When you hear them say “we have beds”, it’s bull. When I hear stuff they are saying it sounds too much like Armstrong. Maybe (Team Sky principal Sir Dave) Brailsford is new to the sport. This guy from Australia (head of athlete performance Tim Kerrison), he’s not inventing anything new.’
LeMond accepts that the numbers Sky published on Froome — in response to accusations — fall within the parameters of ‘ normal human performance’. But LeMond still has concerns with what he sees as a lack of transparency.
‘I always say that if people don’t want to share stuff they’ve got something to hide,’ he said. ‘If they are too afraid to disclose a lot of data, that’s bad.
‘It feels like the events of the last week or so, scientists questioning the data, is the start of something and it needs to continue. It needs to be data combined with the blood passport, and you have to have people’s natural VO2 max (the measurement of how efficiently the body uses oxygen). Chris has to be tested for his VO2.’
Froome is the one rider on the Tour using Osymetric chain rings — a gadget that makes pedalling easier — and which Sky claim over-measure his power readings by about six per cent. It means, say Sky, that his much- discussed watts-per-kilogramme readings are lower than the physiologists suggest. Again, LeMond has concerns.
‘I’m not understanding the six per cent diff erence between t he output,’ he said. ‘ Why i sn’t everyone else using them? And we should be sceptical about the claims of a manufacturer.’
The manufacturer of Froome’s Osymetric chain rings was at the Tour this week, and Jean-Louis Talo said the only reason Froome is alone in using them is because the main manufacturers who sponsor the teams forbid the riders from using them. But Talo, an engineer, claims the rings increase a rider’s power significantly. ‘If a ri der can sustain 400 watts for an hour he will produce 420 wi t h these,’ he said, which i s roughly the difference between Froome and second-placed Nairo Quintana over t he l ast 6. 4km of t hat fi r st mountain stage.
Froome, like Brailsford, has said releasing all the data would mean revealing their methods and conceding the competitive advantage experts like Kerrison have given Team Sky.
But LeMond sees it as necessary to do that. ‘If they don’t want to be under this scrutiny, they need to disclose everything,’ he said. ‘Otherwise they are going to have scientists questioning them for the rest of their careers.’
Froome does deserve credit for the way he has conducted himself i n dealing with t he almost daily round of doping questions. As a sportsman, indeed as a man, the 30-year-old has grown in stature on this Tour. He has had a more authoritative air on and off the bike, surprising many with the way he confronted Vincenzo Nibali on the Astana team bus after being wrongly accused by the Italian of causing a crash.
LeMond and Millar both believe that Froome could now dominate this race for the next few years. ‘When I look at the peloton, I don’t see any great threat to Chris,’ said LeMond.
Millar agrees. ‘He has the potential, the team and the mindset to do that,’ he said.
But LeMond might have a point. With more transparency will come more respect and greater cause for celebration when Froome does win. Not to mention less stress for his wife.