Bassons hits out at Froome medication

Anti-doping advocate Christophe Bassons, nicknamed ‘Mr Clean’ after infamously refusing to be cowed by bullying drug cheat Armstrong, believes it was wrong for Froome to race at April’s Tour de Romandie requiring a therapeutic user exemption certificate for asthma medication.

None of the rules in place by the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, and the World Anti-doping Agency, were infringed but Bassons thinks Team Sky and Froome compromised their principles.

“Doping is about eliminating all obstacles to win a race,” said Bassons, at the launch of his book A Clean Break.

“I ask myself a lot of questions about Team Sky. I have the impression that they talk a lot and say a lot of things because they don’t want to talk about other things.

“The fact is Froome has shown his mentality by taking this product. He had a problem, he was ill and he took this product. He eliminated the obstacle to him winning.

“It’s not that different from taking EPO (the blood-boosting agent which was the drug of choice in the Armstrong era) because you’re tired and your haematocrit is low.

“Just because it’s legal, it comes down to the same mentality. Armstrong said years ago ‘I’ve been tested 500 times and never tested positive’. That’s the same mentality guys have got today.

“There seems to be this obligation with Sky to perform at any cost.

“That worries me.”