UCI helped Froome with illegal(?) TUE at Romandie

[Benotti69]

Probably. Look, the UCI don't even need to be complicit for this to work. Sky figure out Froome is glowing. They apply for the rush TUE. If they get it, he rides. If not, he's still "suffering from the flu" and is scrubbed. UCI guaranteed to come out and say it's all above board, which it is, technically.

None of it however, explains why a rider with such an "acute" respiratory issue is riding, let along smashing the field.

This, but UCI doesn't come out of this clean.

Why give a TUE and let a rider race if he needs such a dosage if he is that ill?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

I must admit this is looking evey ropey for me. I give Sky quite a bit of leeway and always assumed that Froome was doping and other people might be on their own programmes but this is maybe one thing too many.

Be interesting to see how it pans out.

 

[DirtyWorks]

So let's get the timeline sorted...

26th April, flies back from Tennerife for L-B-L, found to have "suddenly" developed a terrible cold/flu, and is pulled.

29th April, get an "urgent" TUE for Prednisone for asthma/bronchial inflammation,

29th April, starts Tour of Romandie, and rips the legs off all, including ITT World Champion, in the ITT.

Sorry, I see NOTHING "urgent" about the whole thing - it is not like Team Sky had no forewarning of his condition.

If they were happy to pull him for a World Tour one-day race, where they were beyond the cut-off time to substitute him, then shove him in another WT race, (where they could have placed a reserve rider in for him), this time a six-day race in the cold & wet of western Switzerland in early May.

Looks damned stupid of SKY management to me, given that he was already the designated "protected leader" for their TdF, and Romandie is not exactly the most important race for TdF preparation.
Now he looks like the "Froome we all know and love" (thank you Hoggy), four weeks out from the TdF.....

That is probably the best take one can put on the whole thing - I personally think that it was to mask the "Tennerife glow" with enough corticosteroids that the other special stuff got masked with the outrageous high for Prednisone

Worth reposting again.

None of this surprises me. Can it now be agreed that the UCI is giving Froome a "procedural tailwind?" Or maybe a marginal gain?

The only question left is why Froome?

I don't believe Cookson would be directly involved in providing these marginal gains. He's got much bigger fish to fry, like making nice with Bach among others at the IOC. Simply directing his Road Commissioner to "grow the sport" is enough.

I believe Sky would test blood/urine to innocently track parameters, and handily enough, never test positive. It's not *that* expensive.

Two huge stories in the last couple of days:
1. JV1973 disclosing the UCI is directly involved in who teams hire.
2. Confirmation Froome is favored by the UCI.

 

[MBotero]

It's a nonsense to force a guy,who is very ill to participate in a race,after just failed to start in other race before ,wtf these guys are savages we are not in Middle Ages anymore.They really can't explain these no matter how hard they will try.

 

[GreasyMonkey]

What risk? They got the TUE they needed for what was still in his system.

I doubt that it was to cover a specific drug/combo, but if you put such a huge spike in any sample result, whatever they might find in small dosages would become simple noise in the background against the prednisone.

Testers would see that he had a TUE for it, and probably went no further.

Same as the age-old trick of if you want to hide something, put something bigger that would be of interest to the searching party, in plain view.

 

[Benotti69]

I doubt that it was to cover a specific drug/combo, but if you put such a huge spike in any sample result, whatever they might find in small dosages would become simple noise in the background against the prednisone.

Testers would see that he had a TUE for it, and probably went no further.

Same as the age-old trick of if you want to hide something, put something bigger that would be of interest to the searching party, in plain view.

So Sky are using something that has a long glow time that is on a WADA list and used the prednisone to hide it.

Should they retest the sample for other PEDs?

 

[DucSti]

So let's get the timeline sorted...

26th April, flies back from Tennerife for L-B-L, found to have "suddenly" developed a terrible cold/flu, and is pulled.

29th April, get an "urgent" TUE for Prednisone for asthma/bronchial inflammation,

29th April, starts Tour of Romandie, and rips the legs off all, including ITT World Champion, in the ITT.

Sorry, I see NOTHING "urgent" about the whole thing - it is not like Team Sky had no forewarning of his condition.

If they were happy to pull him for a World Tour one-day race, where they were beyond the cut-off time to substitute him, then shove him in another WT race, (where they could have placed a reserve rider in for him), this time a six-day race in the cold & wet of western Switzerland in early May.

Looks damned stupid of SKY management to me, given that he was already the designated "protected leader" for their TdF, and Romandie is not exactly the most important race for TdF preparation.
Now he looks like the "Froome we all know and love" (thank you Hoggy), four weeks out from the TdF.....

That is probably the best take one can put on the whole thing - I personally think that it was to mask the "Tennerife glow" with enough corticosteroids that the other special stuff got masked with the outrageous high for Prednisone

Spot on in my view of events..

I am a new member of this Forum - being a "follower" for years..
Finally we start to see the Froome pre Vuelta 2011 and this on the same day as a french newspaper publish the story of a TUE - could be incidentally, but that would be very very strange...I mean the guy has not had a "bad" day for 2 years and 8 months!!

More interestingly - why now - this event is 6 weeks ago.Where did the french journalist get the info from?

I can't imagine it being a insider from UCI nor SKY...

 

[Benotti69]

Harry Koene @hkoene
We only give prednisone (next to antibiotics) for chest infection in patients with COPD... Amount of bull**** is increasing

COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: e.g. emphysema

So it looks like Froome is on a team program. Well that does not shock me.

Will they drop him from TdF now he is truly glowing........

 

[GreasyMonkey]

Spot on in my view of events..

More interestingly - why now - this event is 6 weeks ago.Where did the french journalist get the info from?

I can't imagine it being a insider from UCI nor SKY...

No. 1 on my list of suspects would be Sir Bradley..... Paving his way back to be designated leader for Team SKY in the TdF

And a nice pay-back for the crap from Team Froomster over the past year

 

[red_flanders]

No. 1 on my list of suspects would be Sir Bradley..... Paving his way back to be designated leader for Team SKY in the TdF

And a nice pay-back for the crap from Team Froomster over the past year

You are on a roll.

 

[Benotti69]

No. 1 on my list of suspects would be Sir Bradley..... Paving his way back to be designated leader for Team SKY in the TdF

And a nice pay-back for the crap from Team Froomster over the past year

Did Wiggins get the info of Zorzoli? This has hurt Sky big time. Not smart from Wiggins if he is team leader in July he will face a barrage of questions.

 

[DirtyWorks]

It's a nonsense to force a guy,who is very ill to participate in a race,after just failed to start in other race before

Look at the timeline again. "sick" at LBL. Let's argue for a minute that was real. A reasonable person expects some sort of middling (for a TdF winner) performance and a "yeah, I'm still recovering from XYZ." a couple of days later.

But, no. A recovering rider just a couple of days later has peloton leading power. As with everything else about Sky, none of it makes any sense.

 

[DucSti]

Did Wiggins get the info of Zorzoli? This has hurt Sky big time. Not smart from Wiggins if he is team leader in July he will face a barrage of questions.

Wiggins in support role for Nieve, just enjoying his last TDF...

 

[ebandit]

fantasy

I always avoid those cycling games.........but here I am

fantasy cycling

while da dawgs TUE is reason for concern was blowing up in dauphine because of anything other than his crash?

Mark L

 

[DucSti]

I always avoid those cycling games.........but here I am

fantasy cycling

while da dawgs TUE is reason for concern was blowing up in dauphine because of anything other than his crash?

Mark L

Remind me if Froome blew up yesterday ?
The crash was on friday

 

[GreasyMonkey]

I always avoid those cycling games.........but here I am

fantasy cycling

while da dawgs TUE is reason for concern was blowing up in dauphine because of anything other than his crash?

Mark L

From the "Froome Talk Only" thread....

so, froome banked a unit after the first mountain stage?

This.
With his inhalergate he will test positive for 5 picograms of whatever was in his inhaler sometime during the tour...

100% endorsed by the GM...

 

[martinvickers]

No. 1 on my list of suspects would be Sir Bradley..... Paving his way back to be designated leader for Team SKY in the TdF

And a nice pay-back for the crap from Team Froomster over the past year

Nice story.

In reality, ore likely Inhaler-gate prompted some french journo into hunting around Sky TUE's. And good on him.

 

[BYOP88]

Nice story.

In reality, ore likely Inhaler-gate prompted some french journo into hunting around Sky TUE's. And good on him.

Welcome back Martin.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Isn't it a rather spooky coincidence that this news breaks just after the inhaler was spotted live?

Could it be the inhaler dramatics where invented to allow CF a more sympathetic hearing when this news came out.

just 2 cents worth

 

[BYOP88]

Isn't it a rather spooky coincidence that this news breaks just after the inhaler was spotted live?

Could it be the inhaler dramatics where invented to allow CF a more sympathetic hearing when this news came out.

just 2 cents worth

All things are possible when it comes to cycling.

 

[jens_attacks]

It's a nonsense to force a guy,who is very ill to participate in a race,after just failed to start in other race before ,wtf these guys are savages we are not in Middle Ages anymore.They really can't explain these no matter how hard they will try.

what are you talking about? this is soft preparation compared to football

i;ve heard russian doctors of their teams give to the footballers injections in the heart lol

 

[frenchfry]

The problem with comparing this to Armstrong's TUE is that the facts (as we currently know them) are so fundamentally different.

Lets see:

1. rider that won race has TUE for otherwise banned substance. check
2. facts are leaked by the French press. check
3. rider has claimed never having any TUEs, performances are as clean as the driven snow. check
4. UCI official involved in according of TUE. check
5. UCI says everything is OK, everybody move on please. check
6. trolls abound to discredit any discussion about wrong doings. check

The big difference so far is that I haven't seen anything about TUE-holding rider making generous donations to UCI. Yet.

 

[GreasyMonkey]

Lets see:

................

The big difference so far is that I haven't seen anything about TUE-holding rider making generous donations to UCI. Yet.

You will need to confirm that with Ms. Cound.....

 

[frenchfry]

You will need to confirm that with Ms. Cound.....

I looked up Cound-Dawg in the directory but couldn't find a listing.

 

[thehog]

Lets see:

1. rider that won race has TUE for otherwise banned substance. check
2. facts are leaked by the French press. check
3. rider has claimed never having any TUEs, performances are as clean as the driven snow. check
4. UCI official involved in according of TUE. check
5. UCI says everything is OK, everybody move on please. check
6. trolls abound to discredit any discussion about wrong doings. check

The big difference so far is that I haven't seen anything about TUE-holding rider making generous donations to UCI. Yet.

Nice one.

The only difference was that Verbruggin's son wasn't working for USPS