by Byron Published

Froome’s Asthma

I have asthma, and salbutamol is not a performance enhancer per se, it’s the TUE (therapeutic use exception) system and the trust issues the pros have created for fans. Sky’s holier than thou approach to the sport was bound to fail and now that Froome had a positive drug test we’ll watch the intense spin from all sides.

Here’s what the UCI had to say and the story from the Guardian and Lemonde who pursued it on a leak or tip.

The analysis of the B sample has confirmed the results of the rider’s A sample and the proceedings are being conducted in line with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules.

Asthma is also entirely misunderstood in the sport, culturally the most because of the whole suffering thing, but here we have a tour winner who claims he wins on boiled fish and collared greens with an adverse finding.

And, he’s known about it since September.

The challenge for new leadership is how to respond. Is this a fine, a title stripped, or a slap on the hand? We’ll find out soon enough, but double the legal amount of salbutamol is stunning, in terms of how much was in his body.

So what was Froome doing taking that much of an asthma drug? As Science of Sport puts it, “being ill is a tremendous benefit for an elite Grand Tour cyclist. Quintana and Nibali should try it.”

And, it’s thought that he’s weight cutting with it, and got transfusion bags mixed up, so his dose was way off.

Read more about asthma from the Bike Hugger’s archives. It’s my experience and about how

Exercise-induced, allergy-triggered asthma is so little talked about, I didn’t even know others that race with me had it until recently.

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