I’ll carry on my defence of Froome on this thread too 😆
Froome hasn’t done anything noteworthy (he did finish 38th in the Giro as a young rider for Barloworld riding as a domestique a couple of years back), but neither has he ridden for a team/with riders implicated in drugs scandals. He’s always had promise as a rider who can climb.
The Vuelta is Froome’s main aim this season, so he’s pretty much been working all season with Team Sky/British Cycling’s scientists and coaches (poosibly the best funded in the worlds) with this race in mind. He would’ve planned for his form to peak for this ride. Until Wiggo fell and hurt himself at the Tour Froome was supposed to be Team Sky team leader for this race. He’s never ridden as a team leader before, always a domestique with the work they have to do. He’s never prepared for a race as a team leader. Granted he may have been bumped down the pecking order when Wiggins decided to race, that wouldn’t effect his form, and he seems to have been reasonably protected by the rest of the team until the final climbs.
Would we be questioning say Geraint Thomas if he pulled out such a performance? The only real difference is that GT grew up in Britain, has had the backing of British Cycling most of his life and is well known. Froome grew up in Kenya and has only had the backing of British Cycling for the last couple of years.
Surely we can have some hope that with good training, some clean sport science that people can achieve such things.