It’s fair to say that if Chris Froome wasn’t currently leading the Tour de France after such a dominant performance on stage 10 the media storm surrounding his ride, and the innuendo and allegations that followed, would probably not have surfaced. At the very least they would have found their way to another team leader with a less expansive entourage of team buses.
However, just like in 2013 when the British rider was in similar form, the questions over his credibility have returned, such is the case to varying degrees for every maillot jaune holder in the post USADA-Armstrong era.
For Froome in particular, this race has been marked by the furore, first over the leaked or hacked videos and the oh-so-easy unfounded comparisons between Team Sky and US Postal. Throw in the fact that Lance Armstrong has turned up and you get a snapshot of the difficulties this sport faces when it comes to the restoring credibility.
And it’s hardly an exaggeration to suggest that at this year’s Tour de France Team Sky and Chris Froome appear to face bigger headaches off the bike than they do on it. Yet through all white noise on Twitter is the reported claim that Froome will offer himself up for independent testing.
It’s been around 48 hours since that message first appeared and, while Team Sky might not have thrown their full endorsement behind the idea, it’s certainly one that should be recognised and even encouraged. A Tour de France contender willing to go beyond the rigours of the current testing protocol to try and prove his credibility, what's not to welcome in that?
At this stage, the only conclusion the public can arrive at is that no matter what Froome does subject himself to in terms of testing, and this is on the assumption that he carries through with the idea, it will not be enough in the eyes of some. Independent testing will not categorically provide a final answer, only time will do that, but what independent testing could offer Froome is the chance to be fully transparent and that’s a milestone every rider should be racing towards, and who better to lead them than the current yellow jersey.
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The limitations
Robin Parisotto is a leading anti-doping expert and works as part of the CADF’s Biological Passport programme. He believes that independent blood testing is possible but that it throws up a number of fresh challenges for both the athlete and the credibility of any test results.
“Firstly, if we’re talking about testing after the event like the Tour then there’s not much that can be proved there, because whatever benefits gained by a manipulation would have probably disappeared by then. Then while you’re racing it’s hard to have independent testing but not impossible,” he tells Cyclingnews.
“If he gets Joe Bloggs to test him on the side it can’t really be counted as official because we don’t know if it’s sanctioned or controlled. There are arguments over chain of custody and transparency at that level too.”
"For me, all he needs to do is be part of the passport programme but if an athlete were to do this then maybe a national federation could do it but then you need to ask if it’s impartial in the eyes of some.”
In Parisotto’s eyes only one independent body could feasibly carry out the tests needed, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but with that comes another set of complications.
“For me, the only independent agency that could do it is WADA but then they’d be encroaching on someone else’s jurisdiction. There would have to be agreement between the UCI and another agency, such as WADA and I’m not sure the UCI are in a business of having a private arrangement with a third party.”
However, Froome could still press on and go ahead with independent testing.
“He can go down that route but he needs to ask permission to release all the Passport data. It wouldn’t be illegal to have independent testing but whether it means anything is another thing. It’s like when Lance Armstrong tried to get Don Catlin to do it.”
“Most of this fits with what the UCI are doing but at the end of the day he can choose to do all sorts of testing but if it’s not part of an official testing programme I’m not sure what weight you can put behind it.”
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