Amid all the speculation about the validity of Tour de France leader Chris Froome's performances, three-time Tour champion Greg LeMond assured that the Sky rider's performance is 'within the realm of human performance'.
Ahead of Froome's spectacular ride on the first Pyrenean mountain finish in La Pierre-Saint-Martin, a video surfaced online that overlaid Froome's supposed power data onto footage of the 2013 Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France, where Froome dropped Movistar's star climber Nairo Quintana in a similar manner to this year's stage 10.
Froome's power was estimated to be approximately 6 watts per kilogram on the climb of the Mont Ventoux, values that LeMond says are reasonable, especially in comparison with the power numbers riders were pushing back in the era of rampant EPO use, where race leaders were putting out up to 7 watts per kilogram. But, LeMond said on Eurosport, "I don't think you should ever make that judgement off of one climb", and called for a longitudinal study of power data combined with the biological passport to measure performance.
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"You have to combine the [physiological] testing with the passport. Can people do what Chris did on the first mountain stage? I think it was 6.1 watts per kilo, which I think that's within the realm of human performance."
Team Sky has demonised Antoine Vayer, the former Festina team trainer who made Froome's data public, but LeMond agreed with Vayer's assertions that there should be nothing secret when it comes to race data.
"I talked to him ... he's just saying release the data," LeMond said. "I looked at it, and I didn't really see a whole lot to be worried about and so, and I think he's just pushing for transparency. Not to critique Brailsford or anybody at Sky but when you hear marginal gains, this is kind of what [Lance] Armstrong used in the past, so that kind of brings up a little bit of sensitivity."
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