Froome: TUES are open to abuse
● Three-time Tour de France winner weighs into drugs debate and calls on cyclists to set a good ‘moral and ethical’ example
Three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has described the rules allowing athletes to take drugs that would normally be banned under sport’s anti-doping rules as “open to abuse” and in need of urgent reform.
In a post on his Twitter feed, Froome said he does not have a “win at all costs” approach to sport and has never pushed the boundaries of what is allowed.
In an apparent reference to the controversy surrounding his former Team Sky teammate Sir Bradley Wiggins, Froome said athletes need “to take responsibility for themselves, until more stringent protocols can be put in place”.
Froome, who won his third Tour de France title in four years in July, added: “I take my position in sport very seriously and I know that I have to not only abide by the rules, but also go above and beyond that to set a good example both morally and ethically.
“It is clear that the TUE [therapeutic use exemption] system is open to abuse and I believe that this is something the UCI [cycling’s governing body] and WADA [World Anti-doping Agency] need to urgently address.
“At the same time, there are athletes who not only abide by the rules that are in place, but also those of fair play.
“I have never had a ‘win at all costs’ approach in this regard. I am not looking to push the boundaries of the rules.
“I believe that is something that athletes need to take responsibility for themselves, until more stringent protocols can be put in place.”
The 31-year-old rider’s comments come a fortnight after a group of Russian computer hackers, known as the Fancy Bears, started releasing medical data belonging to more than 100 leading athletes that it stole from WADA.
The Fancy Bears have published therapeutic use exemptions (TUES) – effectively doctors’ notes – that have permitted these athletes to use drugs on WADA’S banned list but only for recognised medical conditions and under strict circumstances.
Froome has had two TUES leaked online, both for a week’s oral course of the anti-inflammatory drug prednisolone, to treat chest infections that aggravated his asthma in 2013 and 2014.
The second of those was the subject of some controversy at thetimeasfroomehadalready started the Tour of Romandie, a key Tour de France warm-up race, having quit a race a week before feeling unwell.
He would eventually win the Swiss race, for a second straight year, but the fact Team Sky let him start, and then applied for permission to use medicine with performanceenhancing effects so he could carry on, was widely criticised.
There was, however, no suggestion he or the team broke any rules and cycling’s world governing body the UCI, and WADA, cleared them of any wrongdoing.
Wiggins’ case is more problematic, although he too has abided by the rules. He received three TUES for intramuscular injections of the
CHRIS FROOME powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone on the eve of the 2011 and 2012 Tours de France and 2013 Giro d’italia – his three biggest races in each of those seasons.
Triamcinolone has been described by several former dopers as one of the most effective performanceenhancing drugs and it is believed to help athletes lose weight without losing power, postpone fatigue and aid recovery. The disgraced Lance Armstrong tested positive for it at the 1999 Tour but used a bogus TUE to avoid an antidoping violation.
Wiggins, a life-long asthma sufferer with an allergy to pollen, told the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that he was not seeking “an unfair advantage” when he used the drug but was trying to “level the playing field so he could compete at the highest level”.
He said he had been “struggling” with his breathing and was worried about it getting worse during the three weeks of a Grand Tour. He then told Marr he had been advised by a Team Sky doctor that there was “something you can do but you’re going to need authorisation from cycling’s governing body”.
The five-time Olympic champion said he was seen by a specialist – understood to be Simon Hargreaves at Royal Bolton Hospital – who prescribed the drug, which was then authorised by a threeman panel at the UCI.
Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford backed Wiggins’ version of events, saying the 2012 Tour champion had a genuine need for the drug that was supported by the team doctor, verified by a specialist and sanctioned by the authorities. He said he trusted the “integrity” of this system and would do it again under the same circumstances.
Brailsford also denied there 2 Tour de France winner Chris Froome has had two therapeutic use exemptions leaked online by hackers known as Fancy Bears. were any similarities between thosewhohad“abused”triamcinolone in the past – taking it with a “cocktail of drugs” – and what the team did in Wiggins’ case, and said fans could “100 per cent” trust him that Team Sky remained committed to clean sport.
He did, however, admit that the fallout from the leaks could lead the team to disclose all of its TUES publicly, to ensure complete transparency, but said the rights of athletes to privacy must still be considered.
Froome, who replaced Wiggins as Team Sky’s leader in 2013, has already told the Daily Telegraph that he did not know about his former team-mate’s injections when he helped him to win the 2012 Tour. His contribution to the TUES debate will only worsen the pair’s already decidedly frosty relationship.
“I have never had a ‘win at all costs’ approach. I am not looking to push the boundaries of the rules”