Team Sky has provided the BBC access to a series of documents and data that apparently revealed how Chris Froome lost weight during the first part of the Giro d’Italia, the calories he consumed and his power output on key stages, including his victories ride over the Colle delle Finestre when he took the pink jersey.

The data was published two days after WADA dismissed their investigation into Froome’s Adverse Analytical Finding for salbutamol.

Close colleague of Froome, Richie Porte (BMC Racing), described the British team’s data drop about Froome’s performance at the Giro d’Italia as “fake news”.

“I think it’s fake news,” Porte said dismissively. “I think they put it out there in the hope that people will under fuel. But we’re all pros, we know how to fuel, we don’t need to read online what Sky say they’re doing. We’ve been doing this long enough to know how to eat.”

Porte again defended Froome concerning his salbutamol case but his growing rivalry with his former team was exposed when asked about the Team Sky data drop.

Froome is attempting to complete a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double and Porte hopes that Froome’s Giro d’Italia victory will leave him tired in the final part of the Tour de France.

The two rivals are expected to fight for overall victory at the Tour de France and are backed by arguably the two strongest teams in the peloton.