Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has been cleared of doping charges by the Union Cycliste Internationale one day after Tour organizers has been blocked from competin due to the outstanding doping investigation. In its statement release Monday, UCI announced it would be closing its investigation.
Chris Froome cleared of doping charges after being blocked from Tour de France
The four-time Tour champion was cleared of doping charges by cycling’s governing body one day after the Tour de France banned him from racing. This is a mess.
Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirms that the anti-doping proceedings involving Mr Christopher Froome have now been closed. ...
The UCI has considered all the relevant evidence in detail (in consultation with its own experts and experts from WADA). On 28 June 2018, WADA informed the UCI that it would accept, based on the specific facts of the case, that Mr Froome’s sample results do not constitute an AAF. In light of WADA’s unparalleled access to information and authorship of the salbutamol regime, the UCI has decided, based on WADA’s position, to close the proceedings against Mr Froome.
Race officials denied Froome from applying to compete because the investigation stemming from a positive drug test had not been resolved. French newspaper Le Monde reported that the organization that runs the Tour — Amaury Sport Organisation, or ASO — was concerned that their event might be marked with asterisk like the 2017 Vuelta a Espana and 2018 Giro d’Italia were.
Froome won both, but he tested positive for excess salbutamol, a drug used to open the airways and treat asthma, in the final stages of the Vuelta last September, and he won the Giro last May despite the ongoing investigation.
Now that UCI has cleared Froome, it’s up to ASO to decide whether it would like Froome to compete in its race. Ostensibly, it should allow Froome back in, given that it banned him because of the length of the investigation.
However, the timing of UCI’s announcement so close to ASO’s, and the fact that, until Monday, the investigation was expected to carry past the Tour de France, certainly reeks a lot like a counter move. And ASO doesn’t have to let Froome back in.
The Tour de France justified denying Froome’s application for the 2018 Tour by invoking article 29.1 of its rules. The article states:
“ASO expressly 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.”
Ostensibly, if the Tour feels like Froome riding might damage its reputation, even with his name having been cleared, it could still freeze him out.
Froome was aiming to defend his 2017 title. The Tour de France begins on Saturday, July 7.
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