French television report estimates Froome’s La Pierre-Saint Martin power at 7.04 W/kg
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Chris Froome in the bunch during stage 15.(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Chris Froome on the stage 15 podium.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome following stage 15.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome rides in the bunch during stage 15.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sky manager Dave Brailsford has repeated his call for the UCI to analyse power data in conjunction with the biological passport after a report on France Télévisions’ “Stade 2” show estimated that Chris Froome had produced 7.04 watts/kg during his ascent of La Pierre-Saint-Martin on stage 10 of the Tour de France.
The analysis of Froome’s performance was carried out by Pierre Sallet, the director of the “Athletes for Transparency” organisation. Sallet is the physiologist who looked to demonstrate how micro-dosing could circumvent the biological passport in a special report for “Stade 2” this spring.
“Froome is in a position where he ought to give us information on his physiological profile to explain how his performances are credible because all of the athletes in the past who have been above 7w/kg have been caught up in doping affairs,” Sallet said, pointing to the examples of Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong.
The precise methodology employed by Sallet was not disclosed in the two-minute video clip, though he explained that he was working off a reported body mass of 71kg for Froome.
“You have to be careful because it’s a mathematical formula. This isn’t the full data, that’s not Chris’s weight. It’s an estimate,” Brailsford said on “Stade 2” after the Sallet clip had been aired.
Brailsford later stated that he did not know Froome’s precise weight. “At this moment, I don’t know,” he said, adding he was not weighed every day. “Not this morning, for example,” he said.
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Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
