Froome could be blocked from Tour

The organisers of the Tour de France will refuse to let Chris Froome race in this year’s event if his salbutamol case has not been resolved, Courier Sport understands.

The four-time Tour champion returned an adverse finding for the asthma drug salbutamol during his winning ride at last year’s Vuelta a Espana.

Froome denies wrongdoing and is continuing to race this season – as is his right under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules – while his team of lawyers and scientists work on an explanation for the adverse sample, which contained twice the allowed concentration of the drug.

The Team Sky rider confirmed on Wednesday that his final warm-up race for his first big target of the season, the Giro d’Italia, will be the Tour of the Alps, a five-day race in Austria and Italy that starts on April 16.

The Giro d’Italia’s organisers have said they are powerless to stop the 32-year-old Brit riding in their race, and new International Cycling Union president David Lappartient has confirmed Froome’s case will not be heard before the race starts on May 4.

But two senior cycling sources said ASO, the French company that runs the Tour, has more discretion on who it registers for its event and has no intention of letting a rider with a potential anti-doping violation hanging over them to race.

ASO is understood to be confident it could resist any legal challenge by Team Sky.

Chris Froome: could be blocked from Tour de France.