Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome won the Andalusia Tour (14. till 18. February) reaffirmed his innocence in the Salbutamol affair.
“A lot of misinformation has been spread. When all the facts are on the table, people will understand my arguments,”said Froome before the start of the first stage in Mijas, Spain.
Already at the end of September last year, the Briton and his Team Sky had already been able to take off from Spain on the 7th day of the Tour of Spain. In the case of the doping test, which was taken on 1 September, the value of the asthma drug salbutamol was twice as high as the permitted limit. Since then, the team has been in need of explanation.
“We’re working as hard as we can to solve this case. No one wants a quicker explanation than I do,”said Froome, referring to” a difficult time “when he shut himself off in order to” fully concentrate on training.
The collected evidence of innocence will have to be presented to Froome and his dedicated lawyer Mike Morgan soon. According to the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, the Anti-Doping-Tribunal of the World Cycling Federation “UCI” wants to open the trial against the 32-year-old at the end of this week or early next week.