Pressure on Wada to explain Froome case
Team Sky has effectively challenged the World Anti-Doping Agency and cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, to publish the full details of Chris Froome’s salbutamol case, as the clamour grows to understand exactly how and why the case was closed just days before the start of this year’s Tour de France.
The British team added it would be ‘‘happy’’ for those details to be released, with the uncertainty only serving to inflame tensions ahead of the sport’s biggest race.
Froome, 33, was sensationally cleared of any wrongdoing earlier this week when the UCI dropped a ninemonth investigation into an adverse analytical finding for asthma drug salbutamol. The UCI said it was acting on advice from Wada, which it noted had ‘‘unparalleled access to information and authorship of the salbutamol regime’’. Wada duly released a statement later that day confirming that it was not going to appeal the UCI’s decision, but it gave little detail as to how Froome’s legal team had managed to win the case.
Those who were convinced that Froome has unfairly escaped sanction talk about his victory as ‘‘bought innocence’’. However, those who felt that Froome’s reputation was being unfairly tarnished said Wada’s controls were to blame and that should be made clear. And if the test is unreliable, other ‘‘false positives’’ may have been triggered in the past or could be again in the future.
Froome told Sky Sports News that the details of the case would be ‘‘fully communicated in the next few days’’. ‘‘It is a very complicated process,’’ he said. ‘‘It has taken nine months of dealing with the UCI. It’s very technical data. All of that will be fully communicated in the media in the next few days.’’
A Team Sky spokesperson later clarified, however, that Froome was mistaken. ‘‘The team won’t be putting out more information as it’s a UCI/ Wada process and it’s for them to decide what to put out. We don’t have access to their data and scientific studies,’’ a spokesperson told CyclingNews.