FRESH CYCLING CRISIS AS FROOME FACES BAN FOR FAILED DRUGS TEST
British star could land 12-month ban
CHRIS FROOME has turned to one of the world’s leading anti-doping lawyers in a bid to avoid a 12-month ban for a failed drugs test.
In another major doping controversy for Team Sky, Froome and his employers confirmed in a statement early yesterday that an adverse analytical finding had been found during the Vuelta a Espana in September.
Froome was found to have double the permitted levels of the asthma drug, salbutamol, in a test taken after the 18th stage of the Spanish grand Tour on September 7. The 32-year-old four-time Tour de France champion went on to complete a historic double by winning the Vuelta.
But unless Froome and his team of legal and medical experts can provide the evidence that persuades the International Cycling Union (UCI) not to punish him, the reputation of the most successful rider of a supposedly cleaner era could be in ruins.
He would almost certainly be stripped of his World Road Championships medals and the Vuelta title — and have to serve a suspension, with riders in a similar position stripped of wins and banned for up to a year.
In response to such a threat Froome and Team Sky have turned to Mike Morgan, the Londonbased lawyer who successfully represented Lizzie Armitstead in her case against UK Anti-Doping ahead of last year’s Rio Olympics — after she committed a third whereabouts failure. He has also been hired by Russian athletes and their Olympic Committee during the doping crisis.
A team of medical experts will also work with Froome, who was actually notified of the failed test on September 20, and perform a battery of tests in a bid to show the high levels of salbutamol could have been in his system without exceeding the permitted dosages.
Salbutamol can be taken using an inhaler without the need for a Therapeutic Use Exemption but the World Anti-Doping Agency rules set a limit of 1,000 nanograms per millilitre of the asthma drug. Froome was found to have 2,000.
Sources close to Froome, currently on a training camp in Mallorca, say he was unwell for two or three days prior to stage 18 and was suffering with a tight chest when he finished riding that day in Santo Toribio de Liebana and, under the guidance of Team Sky doctor Derick Macleod, had three more puffs.
The previous day, on a stage that concluded with the brutal ascent of Los Machucos, he had lost 42 seconds to rival Vincenzo Nibali.
On the day Froome failed his test he regained 21 seconds on Nibali, telling reporters afterwards in a television interview that he ‘felt fine’. ‘I felt quite within myself today,’ he added in response to rumours that he had been ill.
There have been cases that provide context for the situation.
Italian rider Alessandro Petacchi was given a one-year ban for excessive levels of salbutamol at the 2007 Giro. His concentration was 1,320 ng/ml and he was stripped of the five stages he won at the race.
Another Italian, Diego Ulissi, was given a nine-month ban in 2015 after a sample at the 2014 Giro contained 1,920 ng/ml, which again is less than Froome.
For team principal Sir Dave Brailsford it leads to more difficult questions about medical practices inside Team Sky when the last year has been dominated by the Sir Bradley Wiggins jiffy bag and medical exemption controversies.
And while UKAD recently concluded that it was unable to establish what was in the medical package delivered at the end of a race for Wiggins in June 2011, Sky are bracing themselves for a parliamentary report into doping in sport.
If Froome is banned, it will also test Sky’s zero-tolerance policy towards doping. Would it mean Froome’s contract is terminated?
In some quarters there was praise for Sky for releasing their statement. But this only happened because the team became aware that at least three newspapers in France and the UK were pursuing the Froome story.
Indeed Le Monde published a report minutes before Sky issued their statement at 6.39am and other reports quickly followed. A statement from Sky said: ‘Chris has had asthma since childhood and uses an inhaler to take a common medication, salbutamol, to prevent and ease symptoms brought on by exercise. Salbutamol is permitted by WADA rules (without the need for a TUE) when inhaled up to a limit of 1,600 micrograms (mcg) over a period of 24 hours and no more than 800mcg over 12 hours. The UCI informed Chris that a urine test conducted on September 7, 2017 indicated the presence of salbutamol at a concentration of 2,000 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), compared with the WADA threshold of 1,000ng/ml.
‘During the final week of the Vuelta, Chris experienced acute asthma symptoms. On the advice of the Team Sky doctor, he used an increased dosage of salbutamol (still within the permissible doses) in the run-up to the September 7 urine test. As race leader, Chris was tested after every stage through this period and he declared his use of the medication as part of the process.
‘There is considerable evidence to show that there are significant and unpredictable variations in the way salbutamol is metabolised and excreted. As a result, the use of permissible dosages of salbutamol can sometimes result in elevated urinary concentrations, which require explanation.’
Froome, who is due to give a live interview from Mallorca for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year programme on Sunday despite his odds of winning plummeting, said: ‘It is well known that I have asthma and I know exactly what the rules are.
‘I use an inhaler to manage my symptoms (always within the permissible limits) and I know I
will be tested every day i wear the race leader’s jersey.
‘My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so i followed the doctor’s advice to increase my salbutamol dosage.
‘as always, i took the greatest care to ensure that i did not use more than the permissible dose.’
Brailsford said: ‘i have the utmost confidence that Chris followed the medical guidance in managing his asthma, staying within the permissible dose for salbutamol.’
But yesterday a leading expert on asthma in sport questioned why Froome was given advice to increase his use of salbutamol.
Dr John Dickinson, of the University of Kent, said there is always a risk of exceeding permitted levels when using a salbutamol inhaler and described the situation as a ‘classic case of mismanagement’.