Britain’s most successful road cyclist Chris Froome is fighting for his reputation after returning an adverse analytical finding following a drugs test during his victory in the Vuelta a Espana in September, a joint investigation by the Guardian and Le Monde can reveal.
Froome, who also won his fourth Tour de France in July, was found to have exceeded the permitted levels of the asthma drug salbutamol in a test taken on Sept. 20.
Under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, riders are allowed a level of 1,000 nanograms per milliliter.
Photo: EPA
However, the 32-year-old was found to have twice that in a urine sample taken during the Vuelta a Espana.
The Guardian understands lawyers and scientists are working on behalf of Froome and Team Sky to challenge the result, which is why it has not been made public until now.
However, if the Briton is unable to offer a sufficient explanation for the abnormal finding or challenge the result itself he will forfeit his Vuelta title under the rules of cycling’s world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
If the test result is upheld Froome could face a significant ban which might rule him out of next year’s Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, where he was planning to go for a record-equaling fifth yellow jersey.
In 2007, the Italian cyclist Alessandro Petacchi was given a 12-month ban for excessive salbutamol and stripped of his five stage victories in the Giro d’Italia.
“It is well known that I have asthma and I know exactly what the rules are. I use an inhaler to manage my symptoms [always within the permissible limits] and I know for sure that I will be tested every day I wear the race leader’s jersey,” Froome said. “My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so I followed the team doctor’s advice to increase my salbutamol dosage. As always, I took the greatest care to ensure that I did not use more than the permissible dose.”
“I take my leadership position in my sport very seriously. The UCI is absolutely right to examine test results and, together with the team, I will provide whatever information it requires,” he said.
After a number of sources had told the Guardian and Le Monde about Froome’s adverse analytical finding, UCI president David Lappartient confirmed his organization was aware of it.
“There are rules of conduct,” Lappartient said. “I’m not here to break our rules. It’s not for me to interfere with this case. The procedure is secret, under discussion and I don’t have any information on it. I do not even know in what stage [of the Vuelta] the sample was taken. I was just informed of an irregular test [result], but I don’t know whether [the taking of salbutamol] was justified or not.”
In a statement Team Sky said that Froome received the notification of the adverse analytical finding from the UCI on Sept. 20, prior to the individual time trial event at the world championships.
“There are complex medical and physiological issues which affect the metabolism and excretion of salbutamol. We’re committed to establishing the facts and understanding exactly what happened on this occasion,” team principal Sir Dave Brailsford said. “I have the utmost confidence that Chris followed the medical guidance in managing his asthma symptoms, staying within the permissible dose for salbutamol. Of course, we will do whatever we can to help address these questions.”
In September, Froome spoke of his joy after becoming the first Briton to win the Vuelta, which also made him the first cyclist to win the Tour de France/Vuelta double in the same year since 1978.
Later that month he also won a bronze medal in the world time trial championships in Norway — a result he described as “an amazing end to an unforgettable season.”
However, by then he had already taken a drug test which threatens to damage his reputation as one of Britain’s most successful athletes.
That success had arrived late in Froome’s career. Until his mid 20s, his results were those of an average member of the peloton.
However, the softly-spoken rider, who was born in Kenya but represents Britain, shot to prominence in 2011 with a second-placed finish in the Vuelta.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier