UCI president David Lappartient does not know when Froome's salbutamol case will conclude. He also does not believe it is for the Tour de France to decide if Froome is allowed to race or not.
President of the UCI David Lappartient has said Chris Froome will be able to ride the Tour de France even if his salbutamol case not resolved.
And while the Tour could refuse him entry; that was a decision the UCI wanted to make rather than a race organiser.
Lappartient said the UCI rules allow Froome to continue to race pending the outcome of his case; dating back to the last week of the Vuelta last September.
Despite eight months having passed since Froome’s adverse dope test result, Lappartient was unable to say when an outcome could be expected.
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He added while the Tour de France had its own rules that could exclude Froome this year, Lappartient believed such decisions should be made by the UCI and not individual races.
Under the Tour’s own rules, it can exclude riders whose participation it believes might tarnish the image of the race.
Reports first surfaced in March suggesting ASO, which owns the Tour, would block Froome from this year’s Tour if the salbutamol issue was not resolved.
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“At the beginning, I was expecting a decision before the Giro when we spoke about this in September, unfortunately, this wasn't the case,” Lappartient told cyclingnews.
“I don't know if we'll be able to have this before July.
“Of course, regarding the UCI rules, if there is no decision before and there is no sanction then he has the opportunity to ride the Tour de France. And we always will fully respect his right.
"I made a statement before that I consider the best way for everybody would be for him not to ride.
“I keep and maintain my position, however, we recognise that he has a right and we don't challenge this.
“But, on the other hand for the Tour de France, they have specific regulations with the potential way to declare that the rider will not be allowed to take part.
“But this is not under the UCI rules, this is a specific regulation of the event and image of the race. This is not what we want and it's not what the organiser wants.
“For me, this is better when the institution takes the decision and our jurisdiction bodies take the decision and we don't want the organiser to take the decision."
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