Chris Froome drugs test explained: What is Salbutamol and what happens next for Team Sky rider

Testing times | Chris Froome
Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Following the shock news that Chris Froome could be banned and stripped of his Vuelta title after a drugs test produced an “adverse analytical finding” during the race in September, Standard Sport's Matt Majendie explains what happens next for the Team Sky rider…

What is Salbutamol?

A drug taken by asthma sufferers. The muscles contract in the throat of an asthmatic, thereby narrowing the windpipe and making it harder to breathe but Salbutamol relaxes those muscles to open the airways.

Athletes who are asthma sufferers are allowed to use it and no medical exemption (or TUE) is required unless it is for more than the allowable dose.

What are the benefits of taking an excess of Salbumatol?

Opinion is divided. According to anti-doping scientist Tom Bassindale: “Most papers suggest there’s little evidence inhaled Salbutamol benefits those without asthma or that there is a benefit for asthma sufferers once it’s done its job of opening up the airways. There are some secondary effects of stimulation, like increased heartbeat such as you’d get from caffeine or other stimulants.”

Photo: Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images
Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images

What does Froome need to prove?

Somehow that he took the permitted dose of Salbutamol and, that despite that, his body produced double the allowed amount of the drug in his system, whether as a result of dehydration or perhaps excess secretion of the drug.

But Bassindale said: “The dehydration can definitely have an effect with a much higher concentration of the level but whether that’s enough to put it above the threshold or even double, I don’t know. As for the metabolism argument, he needs to explain why he did not produce those amounts compared to any other sample.”

There are WADA guidelines for what is called pharmacokinetic testing, a controlled lab in which Froome will take the same levels of Salbutamol as the day in question - “under strict and independent supervision” - with the sample then tested in a WADA-accredited laboratory.

Who else has fallen foul of such Salbumatol levels?

Italian Diego Uliss produced a reading of 1,920ng/ml (very similar to that of Froome) during the 2014 Giro d’Italia. He was banned for nine months.

Photo: Bryn Lennon - Velo/Getty Images
Bryn Lennon - Velo/Getty Images

What are the possible outcomes?

If Froome and Team Sky cannot prove an adequate explanation for why 2,000ng/ml of Salbutamol was in his system on the day of the urine test he will lose his Vuelta title. That would mean an adverse analytical finding had been proved and he would then be banned for up to a year. The severity of the suspension could ruin his plans to go for the Giro d’Italia-Tour double in 2018.

What does it mean for Team Sky?

The team claimed they were being transparent by making public the adverse analytical finding, although that was only because of an investigation by French newspaper Le Monde and the Guardian. But it is more unwanted headlines for the under-fire team, who last month were castigated by UK Anti-Doping bosses following a lengthy investigation into a possible anti-doping violation by former rider Sir Bradley Wiggins and the team at the Criterium du Dauphine, which exonerated them.

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