One of Chris Froome’s biggest rivals has said the way his positive drugs test is being handled is a “scandal”.
German rider Tony Martin, a four-time world time trial champion, posted a scathing message on Facebook yesterday after learning that the British cyclist had double the allowed level of legal asthma drug salbutamol in his urine when he won September’s Vuelta a Espana.
“I am totally angry,” said Martin. “There is definitely a double standard being applied in the Christopher Froome case. Other athletes are suspended immediately after a positive test.
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“He and his team are given time by the UCI to explain it all. I do not know of any similar case in the recent past. That is a scandal, and he should at least not have been allowed to appear in the World Championships.”
In fact, UCI’s anti-doping rules stipulate that the presence of specified substances such as salbutamol in a sample doesn’t mean a mandatory provisional suspension.
Froome and Team Sky have said they can explain the positive result but Martin said that he had the “impression that there is wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes”.
Martin also questioned whether Team Sky and Froome had a “special status” within the sport, which explained why it took nearly three months for the case to be made public.
BBC Sport, noting that Brian Cookson stood down as UCI president on 21 September, the day after Froome was “notified of the adverse analytical finding”, asked the Briton if he was aware of his compatriot being treated differently.
“As UCI president I therefore had no role or influence in any individual case,” said Cookson,
“I had then, and still have today, confidence in the integrity of all those involved, that they would always follow the correct procedures in every case, and that no rider was treated in any way differently from any other.”
But Martin believes that the whole affair has dealt a “major blow to the difficult anti-doping fight” and he criticised the way it had been handled by the UCI.
“We need a consequent and transparent approach by the UCI,” said the 32-year-old. “What is going on here is inconsequent, not transparent, unprofessional and unfair.”
Meanwhile, The Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), an organisation with strict doping controls and which counts nine of the 18 World Tour teams among its members, told The Times that they had invited Team Sky to join last month but received no response.
“We invited Team Sky to join the MPCC as they are the best team in the world right now but we received no reply,” said MPCC’s president Roger Legeay. “We believe it would help the credibility of the sport as our members have stricter rules.”
According to The Times Team Sky have no plans to join “because they believe that their internal anti-doping policies are at least as effective as those of the MPCC”.
Legeay appears to believe that is not the case, expressing his surprise that Froome’s doctor had advised him to increase his use of Salbutamol “because then there is a risk he could go above the line”.
