Strike call over Chris
FIVE-TIME Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault wants riders to go on strike this year if Chris Froome starts the race while his salbutamol case continues.
The Team Sky star (above) returned an adverse analytical finding for excessive levels of the asthma drug en route to his La Vuelta victory last year.
As salbutamol is a specified substance and not a banned one, Brit Froome – who protests his innocence – has been free to race while the case continues.
Last month he won the Giro d’italia and he intends to target a fifth Le Tour next month, but Hinault said: “The peloton should go on strike saying, ‘If he’s at the start, we’re not starting!’.
“Others have been sanctioned with everyone in agreement, but they will not sanction him because it is an adverse finding? No, it is not...” DAN EVANS has been snubbed for a Wimbledon wildcard as further punishment for his drug ban.
The bad boy of British tennis now has to play six qualifying matches to reach the main draw, starting today. Evans (left) reached the final of the Nottingham tournament last weekend to climb to world No.340 after returning from his one-year suspension for taking cocaine in April.
The LTA gave him a wildcard for this week’s Fever-tree Championship. But while Liam Broady and Jay Clarke – and Aussie Alex de Minaur – received invites to the men’s singles worth £39,000 for a first-round defeat, the All England Club decided on principle not to help Evans.
The former British No.2 has performed better than Broady or Clarke this grass-court season. Former French Open champion Sue Barker said: “Dan has served his time and should be entitled to a Wimbledon wildcard, at least into qualifying. He has put his hands up and apologised. I just don’t understand this one.”