I'm not much of PED discussion guy, but I'm highly suspicious of these ultra low BF GT riders - especially with the Sky info coming out. It seems damn near impossible to be as low as these guys are AND training as hard/long as they do.

The other issue is how accurate this 3.7% even is.

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Seems to low to be true and if it is, it's not sustainable for more than a few weeks of racing without running the risk of hormonal imbalances.

And he wants to lose another kilo by the time of the Tour de France!!!

Move the decimal and you have me.

Only .37%? Impressive. What's your secret.

Not being able to afford food after dumping all my money into a P5x.

Sounds like a win-win.

I do not see a lot of fat ..........

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

That top picture frightens me, it doesn't look real ... !

WD :-)

You played that wrong. You should have said, "Not being able to afford food to actually eat after blowing my food budget on food stockpiled inside my P5x to make it fast.

You've love this one of wiggins

That's plain scary.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

In the old days, the common wisdom was that one-day racers could have lower body fat than stage racers, since stage racers had to worry more about recovery and not getting sick.

My, how things have changed.

That is strange since one day classics and sprint stages need big power, not high w/kg.
Just look at the cobble races, no climber has done great there. Not even back in the days.

I have some questions that may be impossible to answer:
How was the measurement done? My experience with skin fold and bioimpedance is that the results are unreliable. If he used a dexa scan and had a result of 3.7% I'm not sure what to say. That's similar to competition bodybuilders. From experience I know the diets and chemicals they use to get that lean.
If the result is a genuine 3.7% from a dexa scan then I'd be worried about his long term health.
Saying that smashing yourself round France for three weeks is not a healthy pursuit and it is his job so if that's what it takes I'm glad I'm not in his Cycling shoes.

It says in the article they were using skinfolds.

I agree. Essential body fat for a male is between 3-5 percent even if your starving. 3.7% I would think would be a performance detriment but everybody is different.

4% body fat for Grand Tour contenders is not that uncommon, at least not when they're in the 2nd/3rd week of the race.
However, if Contador routinely maintains 3%.... well remember he did get busted for clenbuterol which is reputedly used to "lean out" and drop body fat, w/o loss of power.

That top picture is Michael Rasmussen. Aptly nicknamed "The Chicken". Total freak, admitted PED abuser.
The pic of Wiggo was taken after the Paris-Roubaix. His legs look freakishly skinny but as I recall, it might be an optical illusion...
In other pics from the same race, he looks lean but not skeleton/work camp lean.

That's crazy skinny......one would have to starve themselves.

3.7 has to be likely measured right after a race when they are completely depleted. bodybuilders have died going for sub 3

The better question is what equation were they using

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My Norweigan is rusty.
I wonder how they measured that?
If he was 3.7% on a dexascan, or some other method that accounts for visceral fat, then something is definitely up.
If it's measured by conduction or skin folds, there is a good chance of measurement artefact.

The article is not specific enough to go into the methodology.
The number is from Contador himself, he also said he has to lose 2kg (4.5p) before the Tour.

Most of the article was former pro and now commentator Mads Kaggestad (was on CA with Hushoved and is also the son of Johan Kaggestad. Johan Kaggestad was Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen's coach) talking about weight and cycling.

Kristoff has gain weight before the season, he needs more power to keep up.