Cycling: Decision about Froome ban probably not before the Giro

The hanging game over a possible doping ban against four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome continues. According to UCI President David Lappartient, the World Cycling Federation’s Anti-Doping Tribunal will not make a decision on the Froome Salbutamol affair before May. The 32-year-old Briton could thus participate as planned in the Giro d’Italia (4. till 27. May).

“I had hoped that the case would be resolved before the Giro d’Italia, but I don’t think it will be,” Lappartient told the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport: “Both sides have powerful lawyers and the case is much more complicated than usual”.

It had already become known in mid-December that a doping test of Froome during his Vuelta triumph in September 2017 showed too high a concentration of the asthma drug salbutamol. Since then Froome and his successful team Sky have been trying to relieve the Tour title defender.

According to Lappartient, only legal procedural questions concerning the prosecution’s procedure have been clarified so far: “Before we move on to the next phase, we must be sure that we have answered every question. No one wants to risk continuing without clarifying every detail,” said the Frenchman who has headed the UCI since September last year.

Numerous drivers, teams, race organizers and sponsors had recently expressed their incomprehension about the protracted process. Sky also refuses to voluntarily suspend Froome until the case is resolved. Instead, the star driver of the British top team will win the Giro d’Italia for the first time in May.