Rest day 1 musings: Bad news for Basso...Hacking scandal for Froome and Sky...Looking ahead to Bastille day in the mountains

A rest day in Pau used to be arrest day in Pau as positive test reports would break, police raids would ensue and there would be enough scandal to keep everyone busy for a month as the Tour tried to claw its way out from under the shadow and into the high mountains of the Pyrenees.

Not so anymore, at least not manufactured from within the peloton, though we'll get to that.

Sadly though the main story of the day was something more serious again. News that Ivan Basso of Tinkoff-Saxo was leaving the Tour after learning he had been diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. He had hurt himself during a crash on stage five and on today's rest day had gone to get himself checked out when the tests revealed the bad news. His doctor has said that it's early and he stands a 98% chance of recovery, which is great to hear but I still wish him well and if he battles this like he battles on the bike, he'll be just fine.

Alberto Contador has said he wishes to bring the Yellow jersey into Paris for Basso and so we might just seen an extra motivated Contador in the days ahead.

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Aside from that, the teams spent the day out on short rides to keep their legs turning over and dealing with media obligations. It seemed as though the day was coming to a close without scandal, when a story started to trickle out of social media that one had been generated via a video of Chris Froome from the 2013 Tour with data alleging numbers that 'showed he was cheating'.

Not enough in itself to generate a lot of interest, it was then announced by Team Sky themselves that they believed they had been the victim of hackers and that their lawyers had been alerted. The video in question was then removed from You Tube and the Twitter account of someone linked to it was closed; truly igniting the 'scandal'. It all sounds rather pathetic if not geeky, and it would be if it were not for the implications of someone allegedly hacking, stealing, or acquiring leaked private data belonging to Sky and Froome.

I admit I haven't seen the video or the data but I've read snippets about what it contains, but still, the data itself is almost beside the point. Hacking data goes beyond the pale. It's gone from skepticism, even selective bias against an individual rider or team, and into full blown obsession to a level Froome might soon require restraining orders!

Sure other riders get it too, and the sport certainly gets it worse than any other, and yes history is maybe a reason for that, but you don't have to look under too many bridges in a back corner of somewhere like Twitter to find a element who's daily relentlessness shows they really have it in for Froome and/or Sky. It's as though to a select few the fall of Lance was a bad thing and he needed replaced and Froome isn't playing ball. A rest day without a scandal has proven to be the last straw here and so revealing some hacked information was the next step.

I do wonder however, why not hack the medical files? Or was there nothing that fit the agenda there? Which leads to the next question: How is trying to prove Froome is a cheat who steals wins, justified by stealing files? Who's worse - and there's no evidence the one guy has cheated/stolen?

I've no guarantee Froome is clean and certainly wouldn't stake my house on it, but there's nothing concrete on him to say that he isn't either (and I'm not just talking about a positive test). Not even this file shows anything more than the man winning might be very good - and so I prefer to give him the benefit of doubt while keeping a sensible open mind and if I'm ever shown otherwise, beyond some data and other mixing and matching and twisting of partial information, but also beyond reasonable doubt, then sure I'll support a ban against him.

If this data is enough to show he is up to something then I expect it to be presented to WADA, the UCI, UK anti-doping to allow them to bring about proceedings against Froome. I doubt however that will happen, for good reason.

Until then though I'll enjoy the show (there's a mountain stage already underway today for crying out loud, and to read, though not follow, certain Twitter accounts circling around this story, you wouldn't even know the Tour itself was on) because if I already had them all condemned, like a select few have (and desperately want Froome to be their vocal point) then unlike them I wouldn't be a hypocrite and continue to watch flawed racing.

But I am going to be watching the racing (or following live text updates) so enough with this and on with the stage.

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My pick to win today is Thibaut Pinot if only because it is Bastille Day and the Frenchman has to make his mark. I expect Froome to be attacked left right and centre by up to five or six men, in particular Quintana and Nibali who need to start chipping back on lost time immediately. Froome may only need to defend, but defending every move isn't easy and so his best form of defense may be to attack.

It should make for fascinating viewing.