That’s unacceptable. He is nearly definitely referring to Antoine Vayer, a french coach and phys-ed instructor, most recognized for working with Christophe Bassons, the one rider on Team Festina who was cleared of doping costs following a 1998 raid on the Tour.
Advertisement
With Froome and Sky in complete control of the race after a stunning performance in the Pyrennees last week, it appears certain spectators bear a grudge against the British team.
Froome’s dominance has led to much speculation that he may be cheating just like the past champions before him.
Froome had urine thrown over him on 18 July’s stage and there have been threats from Twitter trolls against him.
Greipel – known as the Gorilla – defeated a host of rivals including Cavendish to win stage two and beat his former HTC-Columbia team-mate to claim another victory on stage five.
Sallet calculated that Froome had produced a reading of 7.04 watts per kilo and said that a 6.5 reading would be normal and anything over 7.0 was abnormally high.
“It was the other way around 10-15 years ago”.
But there was no 27th stage win for Britain’s Mark Cavendish after he slipped into the group of stragglers who came home over 10 minutes adrift.
“We’re all doing our level best out here to try and race as fast as we can, to try and change the image of the sport”.
Despite the attack, Froome tightened his grip on the race leader’s yellow jersey.
On Sunday six members of the French police could be seen present around the Sky bus, with officers stationed beside riders as they warmed up in the morning.
The German’s stage triumph was his third of this year’s Tour and was earned via a sprint finish in Valence at the end of challenging 183-kilometre course. Just as he did in winning the Tour for the first time in 2013, the Kenya-born Briton has faced pointed questions about his dominant performances – and those of his teammates – along with insinuations of doping.
Australian Michael Matthews keeps cool by dousing himself with water but said that “once you start, you can’t stop” as the body constantly craves more.
The sprinters’ last chance for a stage win will be on the Champs-Elysees in Paris next Sunday. “Mother Nature gave me this”.
Tejay van Garderen, the American leader of the BMC team, suffered most on the climb among the big names.
Froome still leads Colombian Nairo Quintana by three minutes, 10 seconds with one week to go.
Brailsford added: “I understand people asking ‘do we believe in Chris Froome?'”.
Advertisement
Monday’s 16th stage is a 201-km trek from Bourg de Peage to Gap featuring two second category climbs and a tricky descent to the finish.
