Irish journalist and author David Walsh has used the example of Dan Martin to add to his argument that Chris Froome is not doping.
If Dan Martin isn’t doping why question Froome?
Irish sports journalist David Walsh has reiterated his view that Chris Froome is not doping. And he said if people had no trouble believing Dan Martin was clean, why not Froome.
"It's not Chris Froome alone that I think is clean. Quite a few of today's top riders are," David Walsh said in an interview on RTE Radio 1.
"I think Dan Martin is clean. He would have possibly been second, definitely on the podium, if he hadn't been brought down unluckily by Richie Porte at a critical stage of this year's Tour de France.
"I don't think that if Dan Martin had finished second, 1½ minutes or two minutes behind Chris Froome, that people would have been up in arms.
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"I believe his performance is entirely credible. And if his performance in percentage terms is a very small margin less than Chris Froome, why should he have such a credibility problem with one guy and not the other?"
David Walsh was speaking in the wake of Froome’s season of two halves. The Briton and Team Sky leader failed to win a race until his overall victory at the Tour de France in July.
Chris Froome then went on to taken the Vuelta overall; the first time he had done so.
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And he has added to his haul this season with individual and team TT bronze medals at the World Road Championships in Bergen.
"I believe he's clean and I don't see any reason for not believing,” Walsh said.
"The case against Chris Froome is powerful in so many ways, all it lacks is evidence.
"Make up your own mind. I'm making up mind and exercising my right to call this as I see it.”
Walsh added while people pointed to a sudden improvement on the part of Froome from the time he went to Team Sky, he believed the situation was not that simple.
He said Froome had shown great promise as a climber around 2007. However, he would hit a slump for about four years due parasitic disease Bilharzia.
And when he went to Team Sky he got that health problem resolved.
Consequently, Walsh argued that Froome had suffered an illness-related slump between 2007 and 2011 rather than made any unusual improvement from 2011.
He said cycling had less doping now than 10 to 15 years ago. However, many people still did not believe the top riders could win without doping.
"I get that and people are entitled to have that view,” he said of the kind of scepticism shown towards Froome’s performances.
“But what I would say is beware in terms of a blanket condemnation of everybody who cycles a bike for money and refusing to believe that if someone achieves something great that it's true."
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