During the rest day, Team Sky has revealed some of Christopher Froome’s performance data in the mountain stages. They tried to respond to the stream of estimates and innuendo from external observers. The figures related to the performance of the British cyclist on a final climb in the Pyrenees on stage 10, where he crushed his rivals.

The data release comes after a French doctor of physiology estimated figures for Froome that were so wildly wrong on so many levels during a TV documentary on French TV. Pierre Sallet suggested the power output was an "abnormally high" 425 watts (or 5.98 watts/kg). But according to the data from Team Sky, Froome produced around 390 watts (5,78 watts/kg).

“We’re not going to get caught up in endless debate. We’ll give you info, carry on racing and then address it after the Tour if necessary,” said general manager Dave Brailsford. “I just think that in particular what France 2 did by putting out that big headline of the seven watts per kilogram with a picture of Lance Armstrong, and I think Jan Ullrich, was so wildly wrong on so many levels. We thought we should correct that and give concrete facts and evidence, so hopefully people will judge for themselves. That’s what drove my decision.”

Tim Kerrison revealed that Froome’s power was slightly less on the climb to Plateau de Beille and acknowledged that many factors including gradient, temperature, wind direction and altitude can affect the data, even if the calculations factor in those factors.

A lot of journalists ask questions about data, but Kerrison tried to explain that the British team does not want to publish all informations. “I understand there are people who are curious about performance of the riders and data. But I think people can understand our desire to keep our competitive advantage by not telling everything even if we’ve just told you a lot about the climb.“

“With great power comes great responsibility. If you have the power to influence what millions of people are thinking about a situation, you have the responsibility to make sure that your facts are accurate.”