Froome begins physiological testing ahead of Vuelta a España

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) has been undergoing physiological tests at the GlaxoSmithKline Human Performance Lab as part of his bid to respond to the innuendo that greeted his performances during his Tour de France victory last month. Froome, who raced at the Etten-Leur critérium on Sunday, posted a short video of himself at the London-based office on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

“Plenty more testing & analysis to be done, I will be sharing results later in the year!” Froome wrote on Twitter.

After speculation surrounding some of Froome’s displays during the Tour, he told reporters that he would subject himself to independent physiological testing to prove his innocence. The team also released Froome’s data from his stage-winning ride at La Pierre Saint-Martin on stage 10. Monday's tests will give the outline for further testing later in the season.

"What haven't I done? I've tried to be as much as a spokesman as I can for clean cycling," Froome said at the time. "I've spoken to the CIRC, I've made suggestions to the governing body to implement things like nighttime testing, I've pointed out when I thought there wasn't enough testing, cases like Tenerife. What else is a clean rider supposed to do?"

Team Sky have not announced a timescale for the testing, although this will be his only round of testing ahead of the Vuelta a España. Froome is set to travel to Marbella this coming Wednesday ahead of the start. He is bidding to become the first Tour de France champion to go on and win the Vuelta later in the same year, and only the third rider history to win the Tour and Vuelta in the same season.

The eight riders that will support Froome at the Vuelta were announced on Monday morning, with Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche the only other members of the Tour team to double up.