Oh Froomey, say it ain't so!

Maybe this isn't going to be as bad as it looks. Then again, maybe it is. But it is really important not to let the noise surrounding this story get us distracted. What is really at issue here is a question of marginal gains and just how far you can take the idea before it gets you into trouble.

We know Salbutamol helps you perform better on the bike. If it weren't the case, why would Ulissi have been using so much of it? Why would guys from historically shady teams be getting caught over the limit? Why do so many riders in the World Tour seem to suffer from Asthma? Even Ale-jet seemed to have some trouble that required quite a lot of salbutamol to fix.

Why was Wiggins getting injections for asthma that were so conveniently timed? David Millar explained exactly why they all have asthma, it is so they can use salbutamol and other drugs like it.

And maybe, just maybe, amateurs are getting asthma too so they can take advantage of what is clearly a loophole (especially when there is more testing.)

But all of this is just noise, the real problem is the blow to what some of us know is a wonderful performance enhancer, legal, and not even filled with yak blood or turtle hormones!

They are those lovely ovalized chainrings, the rings that have been born and almost died many times living under labels like biopace, but now gaining wider acceptance with Rotor, Osymetric, and Absolute Black among the biggest producers of the rings for both road and mountain riding.

And Froome was clearly a big believer. Look at the size of those things:

And particularly because he was into the super ovalized ones (seriously, how much farther until they are square folks?) Apparently actually square chain rings are a jewelry thing and not yet a cycling thing.

But it was important that Froome was always riding these crazy looking rings and winning big races. It may have just been a convenient way of hiding his actual power numbers when the public was so desperate to know.

But I, for one, have been convinced of the utility of the oval rings. Some people would say that my conclusions are irrelevant since I use a Stages power meter that isn't precise enough, but if Froomey is down with it, it has to validate my feelings a little bit. (Especially since Sky started using Stages!)

But if we've perhaps lost Chris as the most recognized believer in oval chainrings, have we now lost the fight? Only time will tell but I take a different lesson from it.

Don't take things too far in your pursuit of marginal gains. Oval chainrings work, they are great, I even like the aesthetics of them, but don't go too far. Those Osymetric things are just too much, the chain bounce and the squashed oval is just a bridge too far. 1000 ng/ml is ok Chris but when you are starting to approach 2000 ng/ml, you've crossed a line!

So go for the marginal gains, put these pretty rings on your road bike, enjoy the performance benefits and the pleasing look that is just odd enough to catch the eye but not enough to frighten anyone.

Seriously, how good does that look!

Just avoid going too far. It is fine to have asthma, lots of people do (lots even have legit asthma!). But if you are suffering from asthma so severe that you need injections of kenacort, you probably shouldn't be starting a grand tour soon. Get that stuff better and then start your grand tour!

Seriously Chris, say it ain't so. As much as I wanted you to lose, as much as I find myself unfairly despising Team Sky, I didn't really want it to go down this way. It is bad for the sport, I agree with Nibs on this one.

(On a more straight-forward note, it does seem really strange to blow it on salbutamol, which hasn't been shown to really increase performance so why go over the line there? Is it just a miscalculation in dosage that got messed up because he metabolized it differently, etc.? I know the science of the testing and the drug itself is super complex and so it isn't an open and shut case, he may have followed all the right instructions and still ended up with the adverse analytical finding. Labs can make mistakes. So I sort of hope this turns out to be nothing because otherwise Froome and Sky are just being dumb. Unless they have done other testing that has shown that salbutamol really does help.)