Lance Armstrong has said that it is his fault that Chris Froome is getting accused of not riding clean by those looking to stir up trouble.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Armstrong said: “I know what that is like for a guy like Chris to be in the middle of the Tour, to deal with the constant questions, which of course he is, and to be fair and to be honest, a lot of that is my fault.
“A lot of people ask those questions, they see his style, they see his performance, they see the time gaps, they see the cadence and they think, ‘This guy is just another one of them’.
“I feel bad about that. Whoever is winning the Tour de France in 2015 should not be answering questions about someone who won it 10 or 15 years ago. That’s just not legitimate; that’s just not fair.”
There are claims that Froome, who leads the Tour De France at the halfway stage with a lead two minutes and fifty two seconds, will undergo independent physiological testing after the Tour de France to discover what makes him the athlete he is and Team Sky are understood to have consulted lawyers with regards to data that may have been hacked into,