PARIS, (Reuters) – Stringent drug testing means cycling is now probably the cleanest sport, Tour de France champion Chris Froome said yesterday.
Froome is the first rider to win the Tour since American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles for cheating and, perhaps unsurprisingly given cycling’s drug-tainted past, the Briton found the finger of suspicion pointing at him during the race.
“The way the sport is now and the way the testing is, it is so, so strict. Each rider has a blood passport where almost on a monthly basis, readings are taken,” Froome said in an interview with Reuters TV the day after his triumph.
“People don’t realise the amount of testing we actually go through.
I am confident to say that cycling really must be one of the cleanest sports, if not the cleanest, just because of the way it’s policed and controlled.”
The Team Sky rider had to endure the inevitable questions about doping from the media during the three-week race.
“That did add an aspect, a different aspect to our race that not only were we thinking about the race and the challenges that presented but also that aspect off the bike of having to answer questions about our legitimacy and what we did to get to this point,” the 28-year-old said.
