Re:
King Boonen said:
Surely the announcement comes pretty much as soon as the decision is made. Anti-doping is supposed to be independent so in theory it should just be released and the parties involved have to deal with it.
Normally I would agree with you, but this is a very unusual situation. They have already delayed the decision for what I imagine is an unprecedented amount of time for a rider who has not been suspended. They have basically given Froome and his team carte blanche to take as much time as he wants. Given that, I find it hard to believe they’re going to announce a decision right before, let alone during, the Tour. If Haas is inclined to do so, all Morgan has to do is send him another hundred pages. It seems that Haas has not used his authority to terminate that phase of the process.
Also, if I understand the process correctly, the decision is not announced until the entire report is written up. That presumably takes several weeks. So suppose Haas came to his decision right now. He probably would not be able to finish writing the report until after the Tour started, so he could not announce the decision until then. Would he do that, knowing the enormous disruption caused if Froome had to be pulled out in the middle of the race? I don't know. If it was a proactive ban, then he really should announce it at that time, but if the report was not ready until a few days before the end of the Tour, would he just wait until the Tour was over? My guess is yes.
If the decision were a retroactive ban, he wouldn't face this difficulty, and possibly he might even be inclined to rule in that manner for just that reason. Though the situation seems to favor a proactive ban, a retroactive ban, beginning at the time of the AAF, has the huge advantage of not being affected by the timing of the decision.