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TOUR DE FRANCE 2013

CHRIS FROOME

Froome: ‘Don’t compare me to cheat Armstrong’

An angry Chris Froome rejected critics' suggestions on Monday that he was taking performance enhancing substances like the famous Tour de France drug cheat Lance Armstrong. "I'm not cheating, end of story," said Froome.

Froome: 'Don't compare me to cheat Armstrong'
Chris Froome. Photo: Jeff Pachoud

Tour de France leader Chris Froome on Monday hit out at critics who believe he could be following in the footsteps of shamed drugs cheat Lance Armstrong after his stunning win on Mont Ventoux.

"To compare me with Lance… Lance cheated, I'm not cheating. End of story," the British rider said on the race's second and final rest day Monday.

Froome reinforced his grip on the race leader's yellow jersey, with an impressive win on the fabled climb on Sunday to claim his second mountaintop stage victory of this year's 100th edition.

But the Kenyan-born Briton's performance, which featured several short but remarkable attacks on the 20.8 km climb to the summit, raised suspicions — and prompted comparisons with Armstrong, who saw his record seven Tour titles removed for doping.

Froome, who now leads Dutchman Bauke Mollema by 4min 14sec and former two-time winner Alberto Contador of Spain by 4:25, has claimed since the start of the race that he is "100 percent clean" and that his titles would never be stripped in the future.

The 28-year-old reiterated those claims at his team hotel in Avignon on Monday but indicated he has had enough of being made to feel he is a cheat.

"I just think it's quite sad that we're sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life talking about doping," Froome said.

"Quite frankly… my teammates and I have spent months away from home, slept (at high altitude) on volcanoes to get ready for this race… training together, just working our arses off.

"And here I am, sitting here being accused of being a cheat and a liar. That's just not cool."

Froome finished runner-up in the race last year when Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins, absent this time round after illnees and injury, became the first Briton to win the world's biggest bike race.

But since then, cycling's long and sordid history with doping has taken a significant turn, following Armstrong's confession, after years of denial, that he cheated his way to glory.

Froome's accelerations on the Mont Ventoux on Sunday caused a flurry of accusations and counter-accusations, notably on Twitter.

Frenchman Antoine Vayer, a former coach of the disgraced Festina cycling team, has been an outspoken critic of Sky and Froome on the micro-blogging site, and regularly posts messages questioning the authenticity of the British outfit.

His counterpart, coach and sports scientist Frederic Grappe, meanwhile, regularly analyses the performances of top cyclists taking into account several key parameters including V02Max — the maximum amount of oxygen the body can consume while competing at the very top level.

In an article on www.rtl.fr on Monday, Grappe concluded: "Intellectually speaking, it would be wide of the mark to attribute the performances (of
Froome) to doping."

Sky team chief Dave Brailsford said he believes that making his riders' power data public, as some critics have suggested should happen, would still not be enough to convince their detractors.

"The latest craze is analysing power data to try and prove beyond reasonable doubt we are not doping. People seem to think releasing that data will provide the proof. I'm not so sure," said Brailsford.

"Biological passports are not just about (analysing) blood, it should be the whole picture of that individual. We would encourage maybe WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) to come and live with us, see all of our data, have access to every training file, compare them to blood data, weight, all that info they could capture on regular basis."

Froome said there is little else he can do to prove he is not cheating.    "I can only be open. I know within myself I've trained very hard to get here," he added.

"It's been a long battle to get where I am now. I've had the support of a fantastic team. I can't talk about anything outside of that.

"I know what I've done to get here."

The race resumes Tuesday when the 16th stage takes the peloton over hilly terrain from Vaison-La-Romaine to a downhill finish in Gap.

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TOUR DE FRANCE

Tour de France formally block Chris Froome over drug suspicion

Tour de France organisers have formally blocked four-time champion Chris Froome from competing in this year's race, Le Monde reported on Sunday, but he is expected to fight the move.

Tour de France formally block Chris Froome over drug suspicion
Froome, shown at least year's Tour de France, insists he's done nothing wrong. Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP
The Team Sky star has been under a cloud since he was found to have twice the permissible amount of asthma drug Salbutamol in his system during September's Vuelta a Espana, which he won.
 
Five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault, who worked for the Tour organisation for many years, called for the peloton to strike if the British rider lines up at the start of this year's event next Saturday.
 
Froome responded on Wednesday that he will compete in this year's race.
 
Cyclingnews.com quoted Team Sky as responding to Sunday's report that they are “confident that Chris will be riding the Tour as we know he has done nothing wrong.”
 
A final decision on the organisers' attempt to prevent the Kenyan-born Briton from taking part is expected to be made by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, which is to make a ruling Tuesday, Le Monde said after the last-ditch bid to exclude him.
 
Technically, while Froome awaits the result of an ongoing investigation into his Salbutamol case, he can still ride on the Tour.
 
ASO, the organisers of the iconic Tour, refused to comment on the report although AFP has had confirmation of information they say backs their view that the defending champion should not be allowed to race.
 
According to the letter of the rules, Froome is authorised to ride until a final decision from the anti-doping tribunal of the International Cycling Union regarding his ongoing case.
 
Le Monde says Froome will not necessarily attend Tuesday's meeting by the French committee with their ruling due Wednesday. He is to be defended by British sports lawyer Mike Morgan, a French speaker, before the UCI tribunal.
 
Sky, ASO and the French Olympic Committee will each choose an arbiter to decide whether Froome should be allowed to start the Tour.
 
According to Tour statutes, organisers may ban a rider or a team if their presence is seen as liable to damage the image or reputation of the organisers or the event.
 
Team Sky have yet to unveil their eight-strong team.
 
Froome, who denies wrongdoing, is out to emulate five-time winners Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.