Christopher Froome of Team Sky, who has personally suffered from a bad publicity and doping accusations during his successful Tour the France campaign last year, hopes that the investigation by the Cycling Independent Reform Commision (CIRC) will eventually put the era powered by the usage of banned substances „to bed” and encourages former riders to contribute.

"It's going to be more negative publicity for the sport. That's never good," Froome admitted.

The Cycling Independent Reform Commision, based in Lousanne, is a three-men panel led by the Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty, bankrolled entirely by the UCI and established to run and investigation into doping in professional cycling in the period from 1998 to 2013, commonly called the “Armstrong era”.

Even though CIRC has recently questioned during the closed-door interviews figures most closely connected with the happenings of the investigated period: Armstrong, Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid, Froome insists that anyone at least partially involved should contribute.

"I hope that anyone who does have anything to contribute would get involved," Froome told The Associated Press.

And he continued: "not just necessarily those three, but anyone really who is part of that era and can contribute to resolving it."

The reigning Tour the France champion believes that, albeit the negative publicity, this is the only way to put the closed era to bed and move forward, as there are plenty of young and highly talented riders to carry the torch into the future.

"I am hoping that at the end of the day people will be able to say of it, 'Right, that was that era, we can now put that to bed and stop asking questions about it,'" Froome said.

"There's a lot of really, really talented young riders coming through the system now that I believe in personally. These are going to be the guys carrying the torch going forward."