Facing yet another barrage of doping questions after Chris Froome's awe-inspiring victory up the Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France on Sunday, Team Sky principal David Brailsford said he is ready to provide the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) with every possible data.
This year's race has been under extra scrutiny as it is the first Tour being staged after Lance Armstrong admitted that he had cheated his way to seven Tour titles from 1999 to 2005. Although he was stripped of all seven of the titles, the sport is still trying to salvage its image.
With athletics also under a cloud following the positive dope tests of former 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell and 2007 world 100 metres champion Tyson Gay at the weekend, Brailsford was adamant that Froome and other riders in his team are clean and their achievements should not be undermined.
“Given what’s happened with Armstrong, given what’s happened with athletics I think just replying with the old way of thinking is not going to give us solutions,” Brailsford told a packed news conference at his team hotel on Monday.
On Sunday, Froome, rooted to his saddle, accelerated brutally to leave rival Alberto Contador of Spain stuck on the tar on his way to victory in the 15th stage, triggering a collective gasp in the press room.
The Briton now leads second-placed Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands by 4:14 and Contador by 4:25.
“You’re asking me how I can prove to you that we’re not doping basically,” said Brailsford.
“You’re all asking the same question obviously and we rack our brains every day, we see each other in the morning in front of the bus, at night after the stage and every day we get asked the same question.
“I think we’d encourage maybe Wada to appoint an expert and they can have everything that we’ve got, have a look at everything that we’ve got,” said Brailsford.
“They could see all of our data, they could have access to every single training file, compare the training files to the blood data, to weight, all that type of information.
“It seems to me Wada would be a good body. Then they would tell the world whether they think this is credible or not. That would be my best answer.”
Froome admitted his growing frustration at questions about doping a day after his historic win .
“I just think it’s quite sad that we’re sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life, a historic win, talking about doping,” Froome said.
“My team-mates and I have been away from home for months training together and working our arses off to get here, and here I am accused of being a cheat and a liar.”
These were the first signs of frustration from Froome after days of calmly batting away the questions.
When Armstrong’s name was mentioned atop Mont Ventoux yesterday, the 28-year-old said he would take it “as a compliment” regarding his performance, but today insisted he was a very different man to the American, stripped of his seven Tour titles for doping infractions.
“Lance cheated,” he said. “I’m not cheating. End of story.”
