To silence doping murmurs,Chris Froome open to scrutiny

Chris Froome's evident physical superiority at the 100th Tour has raised eyebrows.

Clearly dismayed by repeated questions about doping,the team of Tour de France leader Chris Froome volunteered on Monday to open up to independent scrutiny all of its training secrets to try to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Briton and his teammates are riding clean.

Froomes evident physical superiority at the 100th Tour has raised eyebrows,practically inevitable in the climate of suspicion that haunts cycling after the downfall of Lance Armstrong. That despite cyclings anti-doping controls that are more rigorous,invasive and credible than in many other sports.

Froome says that given the history of doping in cycling,he understands why there are questions and insists he is happy to answer them. Still,without getting flustered or angry,Froome was unhappy that doping became a main topic of his news conference on the Monday rest day that followed his stage win on Mont Ventoux,the first by a Briton on that mammoth climb in Provence.

I just think its quite sad that were sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life 8230; quite a historic win,talking about doping, Froome said. Here I am basically being accused of being a cheat and a liar and thats not cool.

Froome batted away any comparison to Armstrong,saying: To compare me with Lance,I mean,Lance cheated. Im not cheating. End of story.

With so many of cyclings recent exploits later shown to have been drug-assisted,many of the sports fans and critics understandably want now to know whether they can believe what theyre seeing at the Tour. Froomes performances are subject to intense debate on social media,cycling blogs and in mainstream media. A mini-industry is springing up of observers attempting to guesstimate and analyze how much power Froome might be generating on his bike,and then taking a stab at judging from that data whether he is clean. Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford called this the latest craze.

Every day we get asked the same question and I can assure you that we are thinking very,very hard about the optimal way of proving to you guys that were not doping, Brailsford said.

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He suggested the World Anti-Doping Agency could help by appointing an expert who could pore over every facet of Froomes preparations for the Tour hes now leading by more than four minutes,with just six stages left to the finish in Paris.

This expert can have everything that weve got. They can come and live with us,they can have all of our information,they can see all of our data,they can have access to every single training file, as well Sky riders blood readings,weight and power data,he said.

The whole thing and someone sits there and pieces it all together and says,Well,yes or no, he said. The WADA-sanctioned expert could tell the world and you whether they think this is credible or not. Brailsford also challenged journalists to put their heads together and come up with ideas about what Team Sky could do to prove beyond reasonable doubt that were not doing anything.

You tell me what would prove it for you,what could we do so that you wouldnt have to ask me the question?Brailsford said. Instead of saying,Dave,how are you going to prove to us youre not doping? which isnt the greatest question to ask,why not think collectively,what would be the best methodology possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that we and Chris arent doping?