Five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault has given his reaction to the news from earlier this week that there had been an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) of Salbutamol in a sample collected from race winner Chris Froome during the Vuelta a España in September. The finding showed values for Salbutamol twice as high as the permitted value.
By winning the Vuelta, Froome had achieved a rare Tour de France-Vuelta double having won the French Grand Tour in July. In doing so, he had joined Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Hinault (1978) as the only riders to have won the two races in the same season.
“One thing is certain, we must stop with Ventolin and all that stuff,” Hinault told Ouest France. “As luck would have it, on the bike they are all asthmatic. I think that from the moment you need that (Ventolin) to ride, well you do not ride. He took more than the authorised dose, it’s pissed me off. And to find excuses after, it’s too late.”
Hinault was also asked as to whether he felt Froome should be allowed start the 2018 Tour de France.
“It’s not for me to judge,” he stated. “But anyway, after the Armstrong case, I thought everyone understood. He should have been careful, not doing anything, not taking a double dose. He had won four editions of the Tour de France and there was never anything abnormal. Now his career may be over.”
I find it very disappointing that despite no evidence whatsoever that Ventolin enhances performance, Asthma sufferers are being told they cannot compete because nobody trusts their medication. Sad the facts are not looked at first before the opinions are aired.
“Performance enhancing” can take many forms. Taking substances which can help weight loss is cheating by the use of drugs, even if the performance benefit is limited to achieving weight loss.