Scandal is a huge ‘disaster’

LONDON: Chris Froome’s failed drug test is a disaster for cycling, according to Pat McQuaid, the former head of the sport’s governing body.

The four-time Tour de France winner Froome insists he broke no any antidoping rules at the Vuelta a España in September, when his urine sample showed double the permitted amount of the asthma drug, salbutamol.

That is a view not shared by McQuaid who ran the sport between 2005 and 2013 — a time notable for several drug scandals in cycling.

“I don’t see how Chris Froome can turn around like he did and say: ‘I played by the rules, I broke no rules.’” McQuaid said.

“The fact is his urine sample was twice the permitted limit. It’s up to him to go and prove that he could have done otherwise.”

The failed test is just what the sport did not need after more than a decade of doping scandal. Froome was held up by many, although not everyone, as a champion fans could believe in.

On Thursday Froome admitted the failed test was “damaging” while maintaining his innocence. He claims that during the last week of La Vuelta, a race he ultimately won, his asthma was playing up a lot more and that the doctor advised him to increase the number of puffs on his inhaler, while staying well within the legal limit.

The failed test has also done damage to Team Sky, an outfit that has already suffered hits to its reputation.

And McQuaid told the BBC: “They’ve had a very difficult 15 months (and) when they set out to be the team that is the clean team that was going to bring back the credibility of cycling, they certainly have gone in the opposite direction this year,” McQuaid told the BBC.