I think I should make something clear from the beginning,  I admire Team Sky and there much maligned ‘Marginal Gains’ (which lets not forget are now deemed the norm by a large proportion of the peloton).

I do not however care for Chris Froome, which I am sure is a statement that will be devastating to him …………or perhaps not. Ever since his attack on Bradley Wiggins on the climb to La Toussuire on stage 11 at the 2012 tour I have had no interest in the exploits of the Sky team leader.

Mrs Rouleur on the other hand is even more clear, she doesn’t like Froome and she doesn’t like Team Sky, but like a lot of other people who feel the same she can’t really pinpoint why.

Could it be their aforementioned love of marginal gains, their perceived holier than though attitude, their flashy gear or their seemingly endless pot of money thanks to Mr Murdoch????

The answer I venture is, who really knows…………

Their zero tolerance stance on hiring anyone previously associated with doping, whilst admirable, has come back to bite them on more than one occasion and may certainly play a part. Geert Lenders, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, Michael Barry, Bobby Julich, Sean Yates and the list goes on.

Only this week there have been three stories about the mean Men in Black. The first, an argument about coach space in the hotel car park about which Marc Madiot in particular had a lot to say, though it should be noted the Bond villian like mastermind Dave Bralisford contradicts every word.

This apparent one-upmanship of our bus is bigger than yours comes remember, a few weeks after the UCIs frankly silly decision to not let Chris Froome sleep in a motor home for the duration of the tour, citing a level playing field as the main reason for not allowing it  (so every hotel room, in every hotel in France is identical is it, perhaps an over simplification but you get my point!).

After the car park space fiasco there was the apparent hacking of Froome Dogs data, with the ridiculous arm chair statisticians pouring over a combination of this data super-imposed over his climb of Mont Ventoux in 2013 that they decided without doubt proved his dirty dark doping secret (try saying that three times fast)!!

And now to Stage 11 of this years tour and to be frank a destruction of most of the Peloton by Messrs Froome and Porte. Dopers, Cheaters, Scoundrels…….. even cyclings very own Lord Voldemort waded in yesterday with a rather ambiguous statement (at least in my opinion) ‘Clearly Froome/Porte/Sky are very strong. Too strong to be clean? Don’t ask me, I have no clue’ though I might be being mean to the Texan especially given he has since said ‘He feels bad’ that Froome needs to answer questions on doping (Yeah cheers Lance). But my point is, would a similar performance from say Nairo Quintana have been met with the same rooftop shouting???? I am just not so sure it would.

Its hard, it really is, yes they are different, yes they have more cash than most and yes you know what, at times you certainly get the feeling that they are looking down at others and thinking ‘Look at these Simpletons’. BUT they are also an incredibly talented team at every level in every role and this counts for something too (Plus Geraint Thomas rides for them which makes them awesome in my book!).

My conclusion………..Mr Madiot, can I look in to your eyes please; they seem to be a funny colour.

Oh and for what its worth, I believe Froome is riding clean this year, it simply is a case of he is that damn good, at least so far anyway!