Cloud hangs over Froome Giro win

STILL IN BALANCE: BRITON INSISTS HE’S DONE NO WRONG

He returned a positive during the Vuelta a Espana last year.

Rome

Chris Froome’s stunning Giro d’Italia victory should put him among the pantheon of cycling greats but the British rider’s results are likely to remain contentious for a long time, perhaps beyond the Tour de France in which he intends to successfully defend his title.

Ironically, Froome was congratulated on Sunday by former rival Alberto Contador as he stood on the top of the podium in Rome. The parallel between the two riders is obvious – the Briton could suffer the same fate as the Spaniard, who was stripped of his Giro 2011 victory for a positive doping control from the previous year.

The 33-year-old Froome was competing in the gruelling threeweek race through Italy despite an ongoing investigation after returning an adverse analytical finding during his Vuelta a Espana win last year.

Froome, whose lawyers have used all sorts of experts to find flaws in the anti-doping test which showed double the level of the asthma drug salbutamol allowed, said during the Giro: “I hope for the fastest decision possible.”

In the meanwhile, the Kenyan-born rider said he was preparing for a bid to achieve a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title.

“I had every right to be here, as I’ve said before I know I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Froome said he plans to take a break with his wife Michelle, who is pregnant with their second child, before returning to altitude to prepare for the Tour de France, which runs from July 7 to July 29.

A win would give him a fifth title after 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

If he won he would be the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double in the same calendar year. –

Picture: AFP SHORT-LIVED? Chris Froome on Sunday joined an elite club of cyclists who have won all three Grand Tours, but his Giro d’Italia title is still in the balance.