Esquire publishes results from two-time Tour de France winner
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Chris Froome at Team Sky's pre-Tour de France press conference in July(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome puts more time into his competitors in Mende(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome giving an interview before the gala(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky) focussed on defending yellow on l'Alpe d'Huez on stage 20
Chris Froome (Team Sky)
The results of Chris Froome's physiological tests has been made public with the results published on chrisfroome.esquire.co.uk. The two-time Tour de France winner agreed to undertake the tests following intense scrutiny surrounding his 2015 Tour victory.
The article outlines the procedures undertaken by Froome at the GlaxoSmithKline Human Performance Lab in London in August of this year.
When the initial test was conducted, Froome's weight was 69.9kg, 2.9kg heavier than his Tour winning weight, with a body fat of 9.8 per cent.
Froome underwent three tests – "Two submaximal efforts, in cool then hot conditions, will measure his sustainable power" – with a max test between the two to determine his VO2 max which was recorded at 84.6.
At his Tour weight, Froome's VO2 correlates to 88.2. Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, by comparison, had a VO2 max of 92.5.
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The lab tests undertaken by Froome show the 30-year-old has a peak power of 525 watts, and sustained power – between 20-40 minutes, of 419 watts. At his 2015 Tour weight, Froome's watts-per-kilogram would be 6.25w/kg.
"Chris's peak power is 525 watts, which corresponds to 7.51w/kg: a massive figure,” sports physician and exercise physiologist at the University of Cape Town Jeroen Swart said. "But the interesting thing is that the [sustained] figure of 6w/kg — which is basically what he produced in the lab — is 79.8 per cent of his peak power. That's a completely reasonable percentage."
Also published in the Esquire article are the results of Froome's 2007 test in a Lausanne laboratory. In 2007, Froome weighed 75.6kg with a body fat of 16.9 per cent. He produced a higher peak power than his 2015 test, 540 watts, his threshold was 420 watts and his VO2 max was 80.2.
The results from two blood tests, one taken on the first rest day of the Tour and a second from August 20 are also published by the magazine. The first test shows "Froome's haemoglobin was 15.3 grams per litre (g/l) and 0.72 per cent of his red blood cells were immature (the normal adult range is 0.5–2.5 per cent).
"On 20 August, Froome's haemoglobin was 15.3 and he had 0.96 per cent immature red blood cells. His OFF-score was 94.21."
"The engine was there all along," said Swart. "He just lost the fat."
