Lance Armstrong, of all people, who has been exposed as a high performance doper and is setting off on a charity ride on Tour terrain in Muret, spoke out as an unqualified critic. In the media, admiration was mixed with a certain undertone. "Astonishing" was the headline of the Tour's central organ "L'Équipe" on Wednesday. In Spain, "El Mundo" wrote of a "massacre" that Froome, "the killer" according to "Tuttosport" in Italy, had caused.
Armstrong, who is banned for life, placed the Sky team and their captain Froome under general suspicion via Twitter: "Froome/Porte/Sky are very strong. Too strong to be clean? Don't ask me," was the initial message. A little later he rowed back: "I have no evidence. I'm not accusing anyone, the opposite is the case. I'm not interested in that and I don't have the credibility for it."
Froome had to justify himself immediately after his remarkable victory in La Pierre-Saint-Martin, referring to his co-operation with the UCI's CIRC investigation committee and his cooperation with the IOC. "What more can I do to set an example for clean sport?" asked Froome, who is in favour of night-time doping controls. Last year, he had criticised the absence of doping investigators on Tenerife, where all the Tour favourites, including Froome, had trained at the same time.
Doping is perhaps the easiest explanation for the extraordinary dominance of the 30-year-old Briton, who actually seems to be all skin and bones. But there are also other reasons why Froome is already very close to his second overall victory since 2013 just twelve days before the Tour finale in Paris.
His physical conditions are ideal: the man in the yellow jersey weighs only around 69 kilograms at 1.86 metres tall, his heart pumps at a maximum rate of 168 beats per minute at high performance. He has a lung volume of eight litres, whereas six would be normal given his physical condition. Despite his low muscle mass, he has enough strength to be among the best in time trials. He can also rely on the strongest team in the Tour. His personal bodyguard is the Australian Richie Porte, who will, however, leave Sky in 2016 to pursue his own interests as team captain in a different formation.
Froome has also learnt a lot. Compared to last year, when he almost earned the reputation of a broken rider and had to retire, he seems mentally stronger. "He is more confident and more complete than before - he is a very intelligent captain," his boss Sir Dave Brailsford praised him.
