TOUR de France leader Chris Froome believes he will never be able to completely silence the questions over whether he is drugs-free.The 30-year-old Briton’s impressive climb to victory on stage 10 of this year’s race has been described as “abnormal” by a French physiologist.
Team Sky released data on Tuesday to prove his innocence.
“I’d imagine it’s going to be never-ending,” said Froome after keeping hold of the yellow jersey on stage 18.
Tuesday’s rest day was dominated by conjecture about Froome’s performances, after physiologist Pierre Sallet produced his own data on television channel France 2, who displayed pictures of shamed drugs cheat Lance Armstrong alongside Froome’s climb at La Pierre-Saint-Martin.
Sallet has insisted the data he has on Froome is accurate, despite Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford saying it was “wildly wrong” and Sky’s head of performance Tim Kerrison presenting a set of numbers that he says prove the claims are incorrect.
“I was quite sure when we released the file yesterday it wouldn’t be enough. The data will never be enough,” Froome said.
“There are a lot of people out there who have already made up their minds and no matter what information we release or make public that’s not going to change their opinions.”