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news
Chris Froome celebrates winning the 2013 Tour de France (picture copyright Simon Wilkinson:SWpix.com)Team Sky release Chris Froome's data in bid to prove he's clean
Team Sky have taken the opportunity of today’s second rest day of the Tour de France to release Chris Froome’s performance data from last Tuesday’s Stage 10 of the race in an attempt to refute insinuations that Chris Froome is cheating.
Since his victory at La Pierre St Martin last week Froome, who leads the race by 3 minutes 10 seconds as it heads into the Alps tomorrow, has faced calls to demonstrate that his victory in the Pyrenees was achieved clean.
The disclosure of the data by the team’s head of performance Tim Kerrison at the invitation of team principal Sir Dave Brailsford is designed to do just that.
– UCI should embed anti-doping experts within teams, says Brailsford
On Sunday evening, Brailsford appeared on the France Télévisions show Stade 2 to discuss Froome’s performance. Viewers saw a video featuring doctor of physiology Pierre Saller who claimed that the riders power output was 7.04 watts per kilogram, which he described as an “abnormally high level.”
The Team Sky supremo described that figure as “wildly wrong” and today Kerrison said that the true figure was 5.78 watts per kilogram, reports the Guardian.
Brailsford said: ““We’re here to race and racing’s a human endeavour. It’s not a set of numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s not a power meter. It’s about racing.
“There’s a human aspect to it. That’s why we all love bike racing. And we’re going to go out and try to win this bike race.”
Given the ‘marginal gains’ philosophy that Brailsford employed to great success while performance director of British Cycling, his downplaying of the role of performance data may surprise some, although in a road race there are many more variables in play than in the controlled atmosphere of a velodrome, say.
He added: “I’m sure if Chris feels that he can attack and he could go and leave everybody behind, it would be a travesty, I think, if he had any doubt in his mind thinking: ‘Oh, I better not’. And he knows he won’t.
“That’s what we should do: continue to race in a clean and pure fashion.”
Referring to his appearance on Stade 2 on Sunday evening and the video featuring Dr Sallet, Brailsford said: “I wasn’t aware of it. It did take me a bit by surprise.
“I asked Tim to present a bit of data today to put to bed some of the numbers that they came up with, because they were wildly wrong.
“I do think in this day and age in the sport of cycling people do have to be responsible.
“If you are going to present something on television, to a nation, then you do have an obligation to get your facts right. It was a bit disappointing.
“What France 2 did, putting out that headline – 7 watts per kilo, a picture of Lance Armstrong and a picture of [Jan] Ullrich - that was so wildly wrong on so many levels that we thought we should just correct that and give the concrete facts and give the evidence so hopefully people could judge for themselves.”
Kerrison said that during that final 15.3 kilometre climb last Tuesday, Froome produced an average power output of 414 wats for the full climb and his VAM – a measure of metres climbed per hour – was 1,602, well below the levels of around 1,800 produced by Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani a decade and a half ago.
He added that since Froome uses an asymmetric chain ring, the power output figure needs to be adjusted to compensate for that, and the correct average figure for the entire climb would be closer to 390 watts.
Froome himself remains sceptical that it will silence all the doubters.
“I’m not sure if numbers are going to fix everything,” he said, “but certainly I feel as a team and myself, we’re definitely trying to be as open and transparent as possible.
“We’ve been asked more questions than any other team. I’ve been asked more questions than any other GC contender. I’d like to think we’re answering those questions.
“I really am focused on the racing side of things. I’ve worked too long to let anything throw me off. That’s all just happening on the side,” he added.
Racing resumes tomorrow with a 171 kilometre stage from Digne-les-Bains to Pra Loup.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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114 comments
I'm also concerned that a team such as Astana with a clear history of doping (5 positives across the teams in 2014) A UCI and Italian investigation and DS thats a former convicted doper NEVER had this level of scrutiny last year and NO questions are leveled at them this year when they fail to delivery anything of note in this years tour.... Its all a side show driven by a few loud voices in the media and a couple of former (Positive doped riders) professional riders working for French TV. All very tardy TBH.
how great would that be Gordon ? It is the way I think the sport has to go but I would then ban race radio .....
Already we have seen with this tour innovations with on time speed etc that gives us the viewers and commentators a lot more info. Cycling is a sport that needs all the data like F1, there is no real difference.
Unbelievable - only in this country do we go out of the way to try and destroy something that we are actually good at....
No, it really doesn't.
Every year, every tour someone comes up with a wonderful idea to 'make it better'; it's actually fine as it is thanks, stop trying to change it, and just watch it.
It's fine for those of us who have been watching for the last 30 years or so, it's fine for those of us who have a clue about what's actually going on, it's fine for those of us who know what racing is all about.
Don't turn it into a computer game, thanks.
...and it would appear that more information would only give people even more to argue about even though they struggle with understanding the basics...
Mmmm, and if was run by people who think like you we'll be having 30 second uphill sprints to decide the polka dot jersey and the yellow jersey will be awarded to the rider with the largest watts per kg measurement.
Dig into the data as much as you want, you're completely missing the point of pro cycle sport, in fact of cycle sport in general.
Take away the human element, reduce it to numbers on a screen and see it die.
not taking away the human element, in fact it helps people to see what humans can do. No one seriously thinks putting HR and watts on the screen, but we have speed now, why not cadence ?
We now have a website to show positions and speed of riders on the course, so that can be put on the screen. At one time int he ITV coverage i had to watch Phil could not even say where some of the riders between 1st and chasing group were, that is mad.
Why not live on the bike feeds ?
Full stats only made available after the race, many riders do it now anyway.
Detecting doping by performance is doomed to throw out the baby with the bathwater - there's just too much overlap between what doping can do and what can be achieved by doping free planning, training, strategy and mental focus.
Now if Froome would publicly just say "no" to marginally legal marginal gain cortico-steroids I would be happy. The old king was a doper, the new a hypochondriac, and there is only a slippery slope between the two.
Just a thought on technology being added to the tv screen. I was out last night with a group of 7 other lads just for a short spin when someone brought it up. All 8 of us said defo no.
Not many people are interested in cadence, HR etc etc. As one lad said "whats wrong with the motorbike camera pointing at the speedo to see how fast they are going".
Like thousands of others i watch cycling for the cycling not for gimmicky things stuck onto the tv screen.
At the moment cycling is losing money with sponsors pulling out and whole teams disappearing yet some on here want more money spent on gadgets and gimmicks which obviously dont grow on trees, so where does that money come from. The teams wont pay for it and the cost of fitting every rider with cameras and all sorts of electrical gizmo's is not cheap. TV wont pay for it either as Eurosport gets the feeds from the local broadcaster who i'm pretty damn sure wont pay for it either.
stumps that is where Velon come in, they are providing the on bike pics and of course go pro is being mentioned all the time ...
also you said teams are struggling and yet you want to keep to the same status quo, the same coverage where the commentators have no idea where riders are on the road ?
I think we need to be cautious about comparing cycling to F1 given that interest in F1 is dwindling.
Correction re. vehicle numbers. Sky normally have 11 at races, there are 14 at this Tour including the RVs.
The figure of 30, apparently from L'Equipe, is likely the total number of vehicles available to the team. Source: Sky's Jaguar mechanic Martin Ayres (@teamsky_jaguar), interviewed in https://audioboom.com/boos/3395940-kilometre-0-on-the-buses
F1 is possibly the worst example; they need to provide something for people to look at because the racing is so dull. What other race would begin by putting the fastest people at the front of the grid and then expecting a spectacle?
Gordon, go for a lie down fella!
Always amuses me that F1 is provided as the shining example to aspire to. Its actually gone backwards in terms of information presented to viewers in recent years, and the way it treats its fans is woeful.
We saw 'live' gradient numbers for individual riders during the Giro, and that worked well I thought.
Heart rates and power numbers? Seems a bit abstract to me.
Would love to listen in to some team radios... but the other teams would listen in to, which would ruin the tactical aspect.
One think I would like, is much better mapping to see where they are riding (those '3d' fly by graphics are just useless)
Apart from that, just enjoy the racing. Cycling is a wonderful sport, and could do so much better if the media were a little more responsible about yelling 'doper' whenever a rider wins a race.
Climb graphics like the ones veloviewer do would be good.
Does anyone out their think if Sky had a Frenchman in their team ,who was leading the TDF ,or was at least capable under the Team Sky banner ,of winning the tour ,would the media castigate him for winning .Dont think so .Do you ?..
Would Sky consider taking on a Pinot ,or any worthy French rider to nurchur and win the Tour to give the French their first win in a long long time ,it would be a feather in Sky's cap I'm sure of that .How good would that be .For France and Team Sky .
Last year there was talk of Sky picking up a French rider with a view to getting a French Tour winner for the first time in however long. At the time Pinot's name was mentioned, but Bardet could be a good shout. The French may not be happy about one of theirs going to Sky now, though, so the moment may have passed.
It would be nicer to have all the time gaps available (at least to the broadcasters). And the coverage to be better. On bike cameras live for example would be cool, or at least available quickly for replays.
Agreed - that would make it so much better. I also love it how in F1 they let you hear some of the team radio chats, that would be a brilliant addition to cycling too.
the sport has got much larger than that, I started to watch in 95 or so just before Lance and the coverage is basically the same. Even the introduction of speed per rider seems so simple this TDF. It will happen whether you like or not. They have to sell to TV and you need the cash to run the teams.
What a load of bollocks. Froome may be a hypochondriac, as are a lot of the riders, but the fact is what they are taking is legal under UCI and WADA rules. And if you think Froome's the only one taking approved substances, then you really don;t understand the history of doping. All of them are at it, so therefore it's a level, legal, playing field.
What Armstrong et al took was not legal. It's just wrong to imply because someone is taking something legally that they're as bad as someone who deliberately broke the rules.
If you disagree with the substances available for them legally, then you should probably take that issue up with Messrs Pound and Cookson rather than spend your life insinuating the riders are all dopers. Or some are and others aren't.
I agree. I like to see the speed at times, if only to think "how the hell can they go that fast?!" but firmly believe that the idea that more data means more enjoyment or interest is a fallacy.
There are frequent mentions of Formula 1, as if it's something to emulate, but I find that pointless and even disingenuous. F1 is driven by an industry with huge amounts of money where small differences are significant. I also think it lets people think that giving spectators access to numbers is an important part of the sport; I don't think it is. Why do we watch it? We want to see personalities, head to head racing and do-or-die efforts, riders turning themselves out to win, to retain a jersey or position. It gives these things value.
Cycling is a tough sport that is about suffering. Why do so many watch on the climbs or at the finish? Because they witness the effort and suffering etched on the riders faces. It changes their perception of the sport and the riders. I'm not interested in a rider's HRM or power output on a climb, I want to know what he thinks afterwards, what he experienced and how he felt. There are too few interviews and quotes, too little insight.
Perhaps in this age of everything being on social media we are missing the poetry of the reporter, the ability (or maybe the opportunity) to tell stories. I'm listening to the Cycling Podcast a lot during this Tour, reading less, both paper & online, and listening more. Voices and stories, rather than numbers.
There is a growing sense of a new "peloton a deux vitesses" but now it's not doping but money. Rich teams snap up the strongest riders as domestiques. They have big, swanky buses, the best facilities, frequent trips to Mount Teide etc. Sky's 30 (!) vehicles have been hogging the hotel car parks at the Tour. It makes for a wider gulf between the top few and the rest and fewer chances for the 'minnow' team riders to shine. Races become more predictable. It becomes harder for the other teams to attract new sponsors, not just because the cost of being competitive is beyond them but they also get far less exposure and interest.
Europcar dropped down to ProConti for 2015 and has just 10 days to find a replacement sponsor or Bernadeau will have to let his riders go. His budget: €5 million. Sky's 2013 spending was €26.7 million, it will be more this year.
I think Marc Madiot made some legitimate points about this last week:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/marc-madiot/marc-madiot-blog-motorhome-...
Yeah it is, but I think that is mostly due to the processional nature of the sport. F1 as a sport bores me but I love the tech and the interactive television coverage where I can choose who to follow and listen to.
Going by this site we can choose 594 riders but i'm sure there are more. So every rider and every bike has to be equipped with transponders, every bike / rider has to be equipped with go pro or similar, so who cover this cost ? As my point was team's are folding due to lack of cash and sponsors pulling out yet you want them to spend more of what they dont have. The spare bike Contador had the other day didn't have a transponder and thats one of the richest teams. So i say again where does the money come from. Carlton Kirby said the other day they didn't have enough transponders on the motor bikes to cover every group on the mountain and thats for the worlds biggest race.
Also with 200 riders in the race how do you go about choosing whose data to see on the screen and how would it be displayed so that the tv screen actually shows the riders themselves rather than stupid images of cadence. hr etc. The smaller teams are not going to buy into it if the only info the viewer gets is for the GT contenders are they ?
Not knowing where riders are adds to the excitement of the race in my opinion as you just dont know how your favourite rider / team are doing until they cross the line.
One of the best pieces of action was from many years ago when Delgado was climbing towards the finish trying to put time into Roche and no one knew where Roche was until he appeared out of the low cloud closing rapidly on Delgado. The commentator nearly wet themselves and i, as a young kid, was jumping up and down screaming at the tv for Roche to catch him. That is cycling and that is priceless, not boring, mind numbing digital read outs on the screen.
What and cycling is not ?
We have basically factory teams - Cannondale, Trek, Giant
Sky and marginal gains where small differences are significant
Tech is developed and used by the teams (though as with disc brakes it works it way up as well)
There is no real difference, as people say money rules and look at the top of the TDF and notice the large teams there. I wonder what Movistar's budget is for example ?
the difference for me is that unlike other sports I don;t follow a team or a rider but I love watching how the guys do the things I can not. So I would love to see the proper gradient that they are climbing at the time you see them for example.
soon this will be available online and the TV coverage will follow
nope it is not fine, people want more info, people want red button access to multi cam's why not follow just the yellow jersey if you want ?
the technology is there and it will come in, luddites better get used to it.
As to that, I found this
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/2015-power-analysis-tour-de-f...
So two sky riders are releasing their data to TP for analysis so why not every Sky rider ? It will come ... for every team ...
Note it says data shared with athlete consent not team ..
Hilarious ! What a load of nonsense. Handily though, I have been watching for the last 30 years, have a clue what is actually going on and know what racing is all about, so I am equally well-qualified in this regard. That said, I am not sufficiently up my own backside to think that that is what matters when offering an opinion on the state of competitive cycling currently.
I love the idea that by periodically displaying more information on riders' physiology real-time, we suddenly confuse everyone as to what is going on in the race. Do you really think people are that stupid ?
Are you still coming to terms with all of the bright colours that televisions display these days ? Was it better in shades of grey ?
Regards,
Gordon
If the leader was French there wouldn't be a story. Lets just cut our losses and next year just let Pinot get a 30 minute lead on the 1st stage, but even then he'll probably cock it up with a bike change or not liking his socks colour coordination with his shorts.
I am more interested in Astana's 'unbelievable' domination in the Giro and their abysmal performance in the tour. Why is that hmmm?
Amazing how the individuals doing more for the fight against doping are the ones being hammered. #howtodestroyyoursport.
Are you sure ? I would go back through forums and other things from the time and see no one believes Landa (who is going to Sky it appears) was real ...
BTW Sky are dominating just as much now
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