With a commanding three minute lead with five stages to go, it looks like Chris Froome is on the verge of winning a second Tour de France title in three years.
But all the while, the British rider has had to fend away questions about the nature of his performances - prompting Team Sky to release some data from his performance on Stage 10 of this year's Tour.
But does that go far enough? Sunday Independent writer and long-time anti-doping campaigner Paul Kimmage addressed today's developments on Off The Ball's and described it as a "shambles" and "utter mess".
"Now, I myself interviewed Chris Froome last year in Monaco just before the start of the Tour and I said 'look, the grief you're getting is coming from one quarter - it's coming from the physiologists who want to know how you're doing this and why wouldn't you just open your doors and say to Antoine Vayer and some of the other guys [like] Ross Tucker to "come down stay with me, I'll show you exactly what I'm doing, I'll give you the numbers."'
Britain's Geraint Thomas, Britain's Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, Colombia's Nairo Quintana, wearing the best young rider's white jersey, and Spain's Alberto Contador, from left to right, ride during the twelfth stage of the Tour de France (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
"Maybe I'm a bit simple. It would have seemed a logical thing to do given the amount of flack he's getting and given all the talk about transparency. Instead what we get today is this shambles where they bring these journalists in, read a few numbers that make no sense to anybody, you get everybody running off producing these crazy reports and it's just a complete and utter mess."
Kimmage was also critical of Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford and rubbished his power data passport proposal, and branded The Times newspaper as the "official organ of Team Sky", saying that they "just take the party line".
As for Froome, Kimmage says the questions arise from his lack of pedigree from earlier in his career, as well as the extraordinary nature of his current performances.
"The race is under storm and has been in a storm since Froome produced that extraordinary performance last week and it's because you see - all of these guys are well-trained and they've all got scientists and dieticians on board - and you see this massive difference between what Froome is doing to what the other guys [are doing]. Everybody else seems to be shattered on the race and Froome has retained his extraordinary freshness from the start. And you kind of wonder about that. How are they doing this? It's a logical question."
But Kimmage also feels that the questions also apply to the entire peloton.
"It's really disappointing to have a great race and a brilliant event like the Tour and to be sitting in front of your TV and just feeling despair watching it and not being able to understand what you're looking at and whether you can believe it or not," he said.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
