Neither the Tour de France nor the UCI is going to stop Chris Froome from racing before his salbutamol doping case is resolved, and I say hallelujah!
I say this not because I like Froome. I say this because for so long pro cycling has been so completely incapable of fair and unbiased application of its rules. They have had such a boner over the last few years to catch dopers, that they would knee-jerk and trample a rider’s rights. All you had t0 do if you wanted to eliminate a rider was to scribble some accusation about doping on a cocktail napkin and mail it to WADA or the UCI. They (or their team, out of fear from public backlash) would promptly yank that rider, even from a race he was currently riding, before the suspension and appeals process took its course.
There’s this big hue and cry from the commentariat for Froome to be pulled from racing the TdF because of his adverse analytical finding, especially now that he just won the Giro under the “cloud” of this case, but they all forget that the whole process was supposed to be confidential in the first place! What about the presumption of innocence? It’s been nowhere to be found in cycling until now. I’m glad sanity seems to be prevailing for the moment.