Cycling's self-appointed watchdogs seek doping clues from a distance
A collection of sports scientists are trying to pinpoint possible cheats online, though their methods are questioned by many professionals
As riders in the Tour de France churned their way up the towering Alpe d'Huez on Thursday, not once but twice, Ross Tucker watched on television in South Africa 5,500 miles away, laptop and stopwatch at the ready, looking for clues to the Tour's perennial question: Are any of the riders doping?
Tucker, a 32-year-old physiologist, cannot know for sure, of course. But he said he believes that by using basic physics to estimate riders' power output up the 13.8-kilometre climb, he can compare current Tour performances with those of riders past, particularly those from the heyday of cycling's doping culture.
His focus was on one man in particular: race leader Chris Froome. In Stage 8 in the Pyrenees, Froome, a British rider on Sky Procycling, sped away from the pack with a power and speed not seen since Lance Armstrong, whose seven Tour titles were stripped because of doping.
Tucker is not accusing Froome of using banned substances, and Froome has never been tied to doping. But Tucker's efforts to raise concerns have prompted Sky to deride his calculations as "pseudoscience". Many scientists in the field also question the accuracy of his data and the fairness of his methodology. "They want to sensationalise certain results," said Edward Coyle, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin.
But Tucker said uncomfortable questions are what the sport needs right now to clean up its image. "The scrutiny the questions bring helps, in my opinion, to drive transparency and build credibility," he said.
