Tour de France leader Chris Froome has said he is open to undergoing independent physiological analysis to prove he's riding clean as Rafal Majka won the race's 11th stage.
Froome decimated his rivals on Tuesday's tough stage 10 finish at La Pierre-Saint Martin and both his remarkable acceleration when attacking just over 6km from the end, and the amount of time he put into some of his main rivals, provoked new suspicions about doping.
It came at a time when data, apparently stolen when his Sky team's computers were hacked, was published on the internet.
A video of Froome climbing to victory on Mont Ventoux when he won the Tour in 2013 apparently shows his heart-rate stabilising at 160 beats per minute as he accelerated - similarly to Tuesday - away to victory.
But the 30-year-old Briton says that's normal.
"I've put that data out there myself in my book. I said my maximum heart-rate is only 170," said the Kenyan-born rider.
"After two weeks of the Tour on Ventoux it's quite surprising it's 160, it's normally a bit lower than that.
Having suffered from incessant doping speculation following his Tour victory in 2013, Froome said he would consider undergoing extra testing to try to silence the critics.
"Obviously, right here at the moment, my focus is on the race, but certainly I'm open-minded to potentially doing some physiological testing at some point after the Tour," he said.
"I've certainly not planned to just start releasing data into the public. I can see the effects of the supposedly leaked file, it doesn't do any good, it doesn't prove one thing or another, that's pointless.
"But if I can find an independent expert to analyse, or an expert from a physiological point of view, I'm open to doing that with someone."
As for the 11th stage itself, it was a third victory for Majka in just two years riding the Tour after a 188km trek from Pau to Cauterets in blazing heat that reached 36C.
The 25-year-old Pole was part of an eight-man breakaway but attacked his companions on the monstrous Col du Tourmalet, which rises to more than 2km above sea level, with around 50km remaining.
He pulled almost two minutes clear of his chasers and then held on to win by one minute from Ireland's Dan Martin, with German champion Emmanuel Buchmann in third at 1:23.
Froome finished ninth just over five minutes back as part of a 10-man group containing most of the rest of the top 10.
At 28th and 7:50 off Majka's pace, Michael Rogers was Australia's highest finisher in the stage, while Richie Porte followed in 29th at 9:14.
Rogers remains the highest placed Australian in the overall standings, 23rd at 24:33.
AFP