If Chris Froome is fed up of having his credibility questioned again following his stunning win on Mont Ventoux, he can take some comfort from the words of his biggest rival on Monday.
Alberto Contador for one believes that it is wrong to question the man who seems a certainty to win the 100th edition of the sport’s greatest race.
“There is no reason to doubt about Froome,” insisted the Spaniard at his rest-day press conference in Avignon in southern France.
“He is a professional rider who has been performing at a really high level all year, and I think that his results are the fruits of the work he puts in and nothing else. “I fully believe that he is clean. That is why the doping controls are there, isn’t it?” Contador knows only too well about doping controversies having served a two-year ban after testing positive for clenbuterol on the 2010 Tour de France. He was also stripped of that year’s Tour title, leaving him with just two yellow jersey wins, to his name in 2007 and 2009, and remained edgy when it came to questions on the subject on Monday.
He insists his focus is on recovering for one last assault on Froome, even if he admits that he cannot realistically compete with the Team Sky man.