Froome and Wiggins TUEs

[Ming the Merciless]

Sky are currently trawling hospitals looking for their next grand tour winner.

 

[hoopdriver]

I agree but the same points could have been made by anyone. It just felt like Floyd wanted a bit of publicity for his blow farm. Maybe cycling's made me cynical.

It’s weed not blow.

 

[FishFright]

I don't remember that book. IIRC "It's not about the bike" protested much but proved little and even some of that turned out to be lies.

It's a good job you spotted the irony before you posted that.

 

[hoopdriver]

It's a good job you spotted the irony before you posted that.

Irony - it’s good for the blood and it doesn’t show up in a urine test.

 

[nickyboy]

I've no idea on the proof required, it seems like Sky are clutching at straws now. How sickly are these cyclists? Its amazing they manage to leave the house.

Presumably Froome has been tested post-race dozens of times in recent years (doesn't the race leader automatically get tested?). First time there has been an adverse reading. And no adverse reading in stages if the same race after the adverse

So this "kidney issue" must be a total one-off? Never been experienced before that day, never experienced after that day. Or....there is no kidney issue and Sky mucked up their Salbutomol dosing in a pressured situation and gave him too much in error

You pays your money and you takes your choice

 

[bpsmith]

Lets not forget that this was leaked to the press, so we don’t know how many times it’s happened before and by which riders.

I find it hard to believe that it’s down to over zealous use of a pump type inhaler, due to the amounts in question, so that just leaves tablet or injection forms. Both of these go against Sky’s ethos.

It’s not good, whatever the outcome.

 

[mjr]

I find it hard to believe that it’s down to over zealous use of a pump type inhaler, due to the amounts in question, so that just leaves tablet or injection forms.

Does it? Isn't overoptimisation of a nebuliser a possibility?

ETA: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/27928

 

[mjr]

I think use of nebuliser requires a TUE. So he'd be in more trouble if that were the case.

Or could it be that just the dose delivered and not the nebuliser itself is what would require the TUE ref:

Nebulizers are by definition inhalation devices and thus not prohibited as a method. However, the inhalation of salbutamol in doses recommended by the manufacturer is most likely to result in urinary levels of salbutamol exceeding the urinary threshold of 1,000 ng/ml and thus, the use of salbutamol with a nebulizer requires a TUE.​

I note that the date in the URL is December 2017, after Froome's adverse analytical finding. I didn't find the previous version on the WADA site. I wonder if that's changed recently?

Also, what about doses below that recommended by the manufacturer? And why speculate about injections which are explicitly prohibited in all cases rather than the more ambiguous idea of inhaler optimisation? Maybe it wasn't a nebuliser but some sort of marginally-gained pump inhaler. We simply don't know yet but with all the interest, I suspect it'll come out in time.

 

[ColinJ]

How about a good old conspiracy theory ...? For example, that some evil third party tampered with the inhaler or the urine samples!

The 'They can't beat me on the bike so they nobbled me!' defence.

 

[mjr]

How about a good old conspiracy theory ...? For example, that some evil third party tampered with the inhaler or the urine samples!

The 'They can't beat me on the bike so they nobbled me!' defence.

I'd really hope that they keep his old inhalers at least going back a few weeks so when told on 20th or whatever it was, they still had the one from the 7th... but given what we've heard about Sky's medical record-keeping, there's probably not a chance. As I understand it, the burden of proof here is now on Froome, so even if it's the lower "balance of probabilities" standard (aka more likely than not) often used in civil courts, if they can't robustly produce the tampered inhaler or a reasonably-convincing stack of other suitably-damaged old inhalers, I wouldn't expect that defence to avoid a ban.

And no, he's still British. Even when he was riding for Kenya (until 2008?), he was a British citizen, wasn't he? But it made sense as the odds of an near-unknown young African-based Brit being selected for the national squad at that time were probably astronomical, as what I read about Team GB back then suggests selection was partly about who knew/liked you and not solely your work ethic, ability or results.

 

[themosquitoking]

Give it time. He'll be "Kenyan cyclist Chris Froome" soon enough if things don't go too well. The same way Andy Murray seems to swing between being Scottish and British depending on whether he's winning.

Edit: Being serious for a minute (which was never my intention) he became a British citizen in 2008 and started riding on a British licence in 2010.

Citizen suggests an element of residency.

 

[Rooster1]

They repeated the programme last night.

A good watch, IMO

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09glhsh/britains-cycling-superheroes-the-price-of-success

 

[Slick]

They repeated the programme last night.

A good watch, IMO

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09glhsh/britains-cycling-superheroes-the-price-of-success

I watched it again, still interesting.

 

[400bhp]

He's doing loads of riding in SA at the moment. My view is that he's replicating the training load of the Vuelta and is going to be tested by the UCI very shortly.

 

[Bollo]

If you don’t care for Google’s word arrange foreign attempt Froome say yes to deal, then here’s the Guardian report....

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jan/30/chris-froome-plea-bargain-drug-test-untrue-sky