Major decisions regarding therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) are in the offing, according to well-known cycling commentator Phil Liggett.
Amidst the Chris Froome salbutamol saga, where the Team Sky rider registered double the legal dosage of the asthma medication at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, Ligget said TUEs did not give riders any advantage when competing.
“TUEs is long past its sell-by date; taking treatment for asthma, I believe, is not taking drugs,” Liggett told In the Bunch. “It is simply clearing the air passages to allow them to participate.
“It is like allowing you to continue working in the office by taking an aspirin to stop a headache. It is not making you perform any better. It is putting you on the same ‘starting line’ alongside the other cyclists.”
Chris Froome, pictured here, was has been under the spotlight regarding his ‘overuse’ of asthma medication salbutamol during the Vuelta a Espana last year. Photo: LIVE NIEUWS (licensed)
A month ago, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) welcomed a report on improving the use of TUEs insofar as cycling was concerned, while also looking at the potential abuse thereof in the sport.
Liggett admitted that TUEs had been “abused”, specifically by Team Sky.
“I think they [the cyclists] have pushed it to the limits,” he said. “Team Sky has even admitted to the overuse of TUEs.
“In our climate now people see the performances of the riders in Team Sky and they are not being caught for taking drugs, so they are pointing fingers.
“Sadly, Team Sky is not a popular team whether we like to think it or not, because they have achieved so much in British cycling and they have made enemies in the press. The press are irreversibly out to get them.”
Regarding Froome, who was born in Kenya and schooled at St John’s College in Johannesburg, Liggett did not believe he was a “cheat”.
“I have known Chris since he was a young cyclist racing here in South Africa for Konica Minolta. I do not believe that guy is a cheat,” he said. “But the finger of suspicion is there.” This had left Team Sky under a cloud, he said.
Froome was not being accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs, said Liggett, and therefore he believed the Team Sky rider “had to make the decision” to carry on cycling even though his case had not yet been cleared up.
“He [Froome] is a professional cyclist and he wants to do his job. It is a question of knowing what to do after having an overdose of salbutamol.
“You can ask two experts and they will both give different answers, because nobody actually knows whether it [salbutamol] affected his performance or not.
“All that is at stake is to prove whether he took above the allowed limit within 24 hours, [constituting an] overdose. If he did, then he will probably be suspended.”
Liggett described the situation as a “difficult position” for Froome.
“They [UCI] have a choice whether to disqualify him [Froome] for events gone by or in upcoming events he might still [wish to] ride in.
“I would not like to be in Chris’s shoes right now because I believe he is a clean cyclist.
“These races are the hardest bike races in the world and you cannot climb a mountain with asthma – that is fact. You have got to take salbutamol.”
The world governing body would have to be “absolutely right” when proving the substance did affect Froome’s performance, Ligget added.
“They are dragging their heels because they are scared,” he said. “If they are not absolutely right they will be sued out of sight by Chris’s lawyers.
“It is not a good situation to be in. I feel sympathy for both the organisers and for Chris.
“I do not know all of the technicalities, but why on earth can’t they get the results upfront now?”
