Tour chiefs could stop Froome competing

Tour de France organisers are planning to deny Chris Froome a place in this year’s race if his salbutamol case has not been resolved.

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 any wrongdoing and is continuing to race for Team Sky this season – as is his right under the World Anti-doping Agency’s rules. His team of lawyers and scientists are working on an explanation for the adverse sample, which contained twice the allowed concentration of the drug.

The president of world cycling’s governing body the UCI, David Lappartient, wants such major events to refrain from making such big decisions, and expressed hope that Froome’s case would be resolved “quickly”.

The urgency has been highlighted after two senior cycling sources claimed that ASO, the French company that runs the Tour, has no intention of letting a rider compete with a potential anti-doping violation hanging over him.

Team Sky are understood to have received no communication from the UCI or ASO that Froome would be barred from riding in the Tour should his case not have concluded.

The team issued a statement that read: “As Chris has said, he wants to see this process resolved as quickly as possible. Chris and the team are continuing to do all we can to achieve this.”

ASO is understood to be confident that it could resist any legal challenge from Team Sky, should the situation reach that stage, as it has clauses in its rules about safeguarding the image of the race.

Exclusion from the Tour would be a bitter blow for Froome, who is chasing a fourth straight victory in cycling’s most famous race and a record-equalling fifth win in total.

The Tour de France begins in France’s Vendee region on 7 July and finishes in Paris on 29 July.