According to UCI’s president David Lappartient, if Chris Froome and team Sky decide to become part of some of the biggest Tours, winning the big prize and then being sanctioned would be completely unfair and unacceptable.
According to UCI president, Team Sky’s actions and behaviors towards Chris Froome’s delicate matter related to his positive results for salbutamol, are constantly damaging the sport of cycling. Lappartient has already admitted that Team Sky should have temporarily suspended their champion while the case remains active.
When asked about Team Sky’s approach to this matter, Lappartient said: “I can’t force them. With the rules they have the right to race him. It’s up to them to decide. But if he wins some races then it could be bad if he’s sanctioned after. That’s why I think it would be better for them to decrease the pressure by having him not riding at the moment.”
Taking zero actions…
However, it seems both team Sky’s plans do not include any suspension and they are preparing to make Froome part of their intense event calendar for this season instead. Froome has even announced that he plans to race the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France this year giving the impression he doesn’t really care about the positive test result which indicated twice the allowed amount of the asthma drug in his urine sample.
However, at this moment, UCI is still not in the position to sanction Froome.
“Chris Froome has the right to explain his point of view and defend his situation. This can take time but we have to follow this. We can’t be in a hurry and make a mistake. I don’t know how long it will take. But I hope that it will be solved as soon as possible, for him, us and cycling…It’s possible he could be riding the Tour. It’s possible he could be sanctioned after. That happens,” Lappartient said soon after the Santos Tour Down Under final stage.
When asked about the damage Team Sky’s behavior was causing to the sport of cycling, Lappartient said; “What do you think? Of course, yes. When this happened you could see the newspapers and the internet, that cycling was going back to its past…”
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