WE WON’T ALLOW YOU ON LE TOUR...

Race organisers inform Froome he can’t defend title due to dope case Team Sky confident he will still join the fray as they launch a legal challenge

CHRIS FROOME remains confident of taking part in the Tour de France despite a stunning attempt by the organisers of the race to ban him from the start line next weekend. A report in the French newspaper

Le Monde revealed yesterday that the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have exercised their right to exclude the Team Sky rider from their event, on the grounds that his ‘presence’ could ‘damage the image or reputation’ of the three-week race.

As things stand there is an appeal hearing at the French Olympic Committee offices in Paris tomorrow, with a decision expected the following day.

But sources were last night suggesting that the sport’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, could deliver a significant update on Froome’s long-running salbutamol case as early as today. If it turns out he has escaped a ban, he will obviously be free to race.

The four-time winner of the Tour has been under investigation since being found to have double the permitted limit for an asthma drug in his system at the Vuelta a Espana last September.

Since then a complicated legal battle has unfolded, with Froome’s lawyers even understood to have challenged the science behind the world anti-doping rule on salbutamol, leading to a delay in the process that enabled the 33-year-old Briton to add another Grand Tour title to his collection at the Giro d’Italia in May.

In recent weeks, Sportsmail understands, rapid progress has been made by the independent doping arm of the world governing body and yesterday UCI president David Lappartient insisted the situation would become clearer before the Tour begins on Saturday.

‘I have always said we would make known the general position of the UCI before the Tour and that will be the case,’ said Lappartient. ‘It begins next Saturday, so we shall explain our position during the coming week.’

Whether Froome escapes a doping ban, when riders have been suspended for lower levels of salbutamol in their system, remains to be seen.

But he has continued racing in the face of widespread criticism, with Lappartient among those critical of Team Sky’s failure to employ the policy of many professional teams in withdrawing a rider from competition when being investigated for a potential doping offence.

Only last month, Sky became embroiled in a public dispute with French cycling legend Bernard Hinault, something that is unlikely to endear Froome and Team Sky to the millions lining the Tour route if he does race.

Those closest to Froome think he will be pursuing a fifth Tour win that would put him on a par with Hinault.

Team Sky said: ‘We are confident that Chris will be riding the Tour as we know he has done nothing wrong,’ while Froome’s wife Michelle told Reuters: ‘Chris will ride the Tour.’

Whether ASO have acted to put pressure on the UCI to rule on Froome’s case before the event — the situation proved uncomfortable for the Giro organisers who made no secret of their desire to see someone other than Froome win their race — is unclear.

ASO’s rules state, in accordance with UCI regulations, that the organiser ‘reserves the right to refuse participation in — or to exclude from — the event, a team or any of its members whose presence would be such as to damage the image or reputation of ASO or the event’.

Team Sky have appealed to the French Olympic Committee, with a legal team led by top doping lawyer Mike Morgan expected to attend the hearing in Paris tomorrow.

There is a precedent, with ASO attempting to ban Tom Boonen from the 2009 Tour using the same ruling only for the former world champion to win his appeal hearing at the French arbitration court and race.

Boonen tested positive for cocaine, even though the drug is not banned when used out of competition.

Last month Hinault, whose 1985 victory represents the last French win in the race, amazingly called for riders to strike during this year’s race in protest against Froome’s participation.

Team Sky responded with a statement saying his comments were ‘irresponsible and illinformed’.

It has nevertheless left Team Sky insiders fearful of a negative reaction among fans at the race when Froome has been the target of abuse in the past.

In May, Lappartient told Cycling

News he would prefer it if ASO did not rule on the Froome case.

‘For me this is better when the institution takes the decision and our jurisdiction bodies take the decision,’ he said. ‘We don’t want the organiser to take the decision.’

On Friday, however, race director Christian Prudhomme expressed the frustration of ASO.

He said: ‘It’s terrible that the sporting authorities have not managed to solve this problem before the start of the world’s biggest race. I won’t say anything more but of course rules have to be modified.

‘An abnormal control doesn’t mean anything to a larger public. It has to be black or white, positive or negative.’