Froome’s relief over drug case backflip

REIGNING Tour de France champion Chris Froome says a “huge weight” has been lifted off his shoulders after he was cleared by cycling’s world governing body of any wrongdoing in a doping case.

The British cyclist faced the prospect of being barred from entering this year’s Tour de France by race organisers because of ongoing uncertainty over an adverse analytical finding related to a test during last year’s Vuelta a Espana.

However, Tour director Christian Prudhomme confirmed on Monday that race organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), will not seek to bar Team Sky’s Froome from taking part in the race because the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) decision to clear Froome had rendered any such attempt obsolete.

The four-time winner had always protested his innocence in the case, which stemmed from a dispute over what constituted a “permitted level” of the asthma drug salbutamol.

“I’m just so relieved now that going into the Tour de France, our biggest race of the year, we can finally draw a line [under this] and have this behind us now,” Froome told Sky Sports News.

“From the outset I’ve known I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve always had that confidence, but it’s obviously been quite difficult reading all these things in the media and opinions that have been completely distorted by facts that weren’t correct being leaked into the public domain.

“It was definitely a difficult process, but it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders now.”

Froome’s desire to put the issue behind him is probably wishful thinking given the acrimony that has accompanied the episode, with fivetime Tour winner Bernard Hinault suggesting two weeks ago that fellow riders should strike if Froome lined up alongside them.

There are also likely to be lingering issues between cycling’s world governing body the UCI and the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA), which indicated in the wake of the UCI’s ruling that it would not submit an appeal against the decision.