Chris Froome placed a significant down payment on the 2015 Tour de France in the first mountain test of the race as his blistering attack saw his main GC rivals melt away, but his offensive continued into the post-race press conference, where he faced questions regarding his validity as a clean rider.
On the rest day night Team Sky announced that it believed Froome's files from the 2013 Tour had been hacked, and armchair analysts began picking apart his Mont Ventoux data, which showed his heart rate remaining fairly steady as he attacked up the climb. While Froome's ride to La Pierre Saint Martin may raise further questions, the 2013 champion was unequivocal in stating his stance against doping.
"What haven't I done? I've tried to be as much as a spokesman as I can for clean cycling," Froome said in his post-race press conference after taking Tour stage win number five. "I've spoken to the CIRC, I've made suggestions to the governing body to implement things like nighttime testing, I've pointed out when I thought there wasn't enough testing, cases like Tenerife. What else is a clean rider supposed to do?"
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Having proven himself as the strongest rider in the race, questions of whether the next two weeks are now simply a procession in to Paris were inevitable. Froome's closest overall challenger, Tejay van Garderen (BMC), sits 2:52 minutes in arrears. Third on the stage, Nairo Quintana, is 3:09 minutes down, Alberto Contador 4:04 minutes, and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali at 6:57 minutes.
With Van Garderen forcing his way into the ‘fab four' due to the strong performances of his BMC team and the moniker of the favourites adjusted to the ‘Backstreet Boys', Froome's ride was akin to a pop star leaving the group to pursue personal success and ensure his name alone is up in lights.
With Nibali, Contador, Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot and Jean-Christophe Pèraud all losing contact on the climb, Froome explained that team's tactics to ride a defensive race went out the window when he heard his rivals were all struggling.
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