Doping suspicions dampen Froome celebrations

Pau (France)

Two years on from his scintillating victories at Ax 3 Domaines and Mont Ventoux, Chris Froome finds himself again in the eye of a storm of doping suspicions at the Tour de France.

Just as he did in 2013, the Kenyan-born Briton seemingly crushed his rivals' spirits with a stunning victory up to La Pierre-Saint Martin on Tuesday. And with two more Pyrenean stages to come on Wednesday and Thursday, the 30-year-old could have killed off all semblance of suspense at the 2015 Tour before it even reaches the Alps, let alone Paris.

Predictably, after reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali and two-time former winner Alberto Contador floundered on the lower slopes of the 15km climb to Tuesday's finish, Froome had to field questions about his legitimacy. And he awoke Wednesday morning to more incredulity surrounding his latest climbing demolition job.

"Chris Froome's demonstration did not remove the strange climate surrounding the Sky team," wrote l'Equipe, the popular French sports daily. Froome himself reacted with uncharacteristic frankness when asked at a tense press conference about doping following his success on Tuesday.

"I know I'm a clean rider, I've worked extremely hard to be in this position and I'm very proud of that," he insisted."It doesn't make me angry, I know where the questions are coming from, I know the history of the Tour and the people that have gone before me.

"But at the same time there needs to be a level of respect. I've worked extremely hard to be here and I'm not going to let anyone take that away from me." He also found some defenders in the shape of former world champion Luc Leblanc, now a consultant on French TV and radio.