UCI helped Froome with illegal(?) TUE at Romandie

[Benotti69]

So, Walsh thought Froome was clean before the embedding because:
JV told Walsh that Wiggins would win the tour if he stayed at Garmin.
Walsh reckoned Garmin were clean.
Wiggins did nothing out of the ordinary at Sky relative to his performances at Garmin.
So Sky mustn't be doping.

End result, Froome is clean...


Award winning journalist.

Sports journalists are not known to be great investigators and Walsh falls into this cliché very easily.

 

[Benotti69]

anyone remember this

“I hope to begin a new era of collaboration, openness and transparency in cycling and restore the trust that has been lost in our great sport”

– @BrianCooksonUCI, june 2013

 

[The Hitch]

So, Walsh thought Froome was clean before the embedding because:
JV told Walsh that Wiggins would win the tour if he stayed at Garmin.
Walsh reckoned Garmin were clean.
Wiggins did nothing out of the ordinary at Sky relative to his performances at Garmin.
So Sky mustn't be doping.

End result, Froome is clean...


Award winning journalist.

Don't forget, Richie Porte would have told Walsh if Froome was doping. And he would know because they are roommates at the Tour and doping isn't something that evolves or anything so Porte would definately see Froome dope with 1990's type blood bags and he would also definately tell Walsh about it.

 

[Tinman]

The confusion probably comes from multiple news stories all being slightly different. The Journal du Dimanche claimed 'ahead of the race' but maybe they don't know for sure as they were reporting based on a leak / hearsay.

It was granted before day 2 by the sounds of it, whether that is before or on day 1 is unclear.

Here is what Cycling news reported on 15 June, it corroborates the BBC report.

"Froome had missed Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to a chest infection and initially consulted with his personal doctor in Monaco, Dr. Bermon, who did not prescribe any oral corticosteroids to treat the ailment.

Ahead of the Tour de Romandie, Le Journal du Dimanche reports, Sky team doctor Alan Farrell requested a TUE that would allow Froome to take 40mg per day of the oral corticosteroid prednisolone throughout the race. This request was reportedly granted and Froome proceeded to win the Tour de Romandie for the second successive year."

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Here is what Cycling news reported on 15 June, it corroborates the BBC report.

"Froome had missed Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to a chest infection and initially consulted with his personal doctor in Monaco, Dr. Bermon, who did not prescribe any oral corticosteroids to treat the ailment.

Ahead of the Tour de Romandie, Le Journal du Dimanche reports, Sky team doctor Alan Farrell requested a TUE that would allow Froome to take 40mg per day of the oral corticosteroid prednisolone throughout the race. This request was reportedly granted and Froome proceeded to win the Tour de Romandie for the second successive year."

Possible explanation:

He did the prologue and then coughed a lot afterwards.

The race proper (pedantically) starts with Stage 1 - the day after the prologue, and the day after the evening that the TUE was requested and given.

Therefore, requesting it after the prologue but before Stage 1 can be considered, "ahead of the race", but keep in mind, CN are also translating French to English.

 

[TailWindHome]

it corroborates the BBC report.

CN and the BBC are both basing their story on the original source, no?

 

[Tinman]

CN and the BBC are both basing their story on the original source, no?

I don't know, but WHEN the TUE was requested is a critical part in supporting the notion whether this was requested because he was glowing from out of competition prednisone use or whether the request was for "reasonable" medical reasons.

And even then, the argument has been made that there is no sensible doctor on earth who would prescribe prednisone agreeing his/her patient to continue in a punishing physical eandeavour, on a daily basis, for an entire week. It goes totally against basic medical training, the hippocratic oath, and the core medical construct of "Primum non nocere", "First do no harm".

 

[Semper Fidelis]

So, Walsh thought Froome was clean before the embedding because:
JV told Walsh that Wiggins would win the tour if he stayed at Garmin.
Walsh reckoned Garmin were clean.
Wiggins did nothing out of the ordinary at Sky relative to his performances at Garmin.
So Sky mustn't be doping.

End result, Froome is clean...


Award winning journalist.

Yup that Fish Hack done a great job investigating Sky. But if you say something bad about him you might get labeled or ridiculed.

 

[thehog]

I lolled at Walsh calling out Sky on an 'ethical' basis. He's allied himself too closely with them to maintain credibility. How can he have writted this book and not be concerned by Sky's or mainly Froome's ethics? He's painted him as an opportunistic narcissist with a profound sense of entitlement, entirely someone I could believe would ruthlessly exploit the rules to win a race.

True. In 1999 or 2007 it would mean doping. Now it becomes an issue of "ethics".

Gateway drug and all that but it reads to me that Froome has zero problem with popping pills to repair his condition. The "no needles" policy is based on that concept alone. If riders get used to injecting cortisone, vitamins etc. then it won't feel any different than injecting EPO.

It also appears Walsh had no idea about the asthma but now talks about it as if he always knew. This doesn't correlate to the books he wrote which makes Walsh look all the more stupid.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

What is a TUE?

A Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) is a certificate, signed by a medical doctor, which allows a sports person to take a drug and still compete in their chosen sport. The drug may be on the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances but can be used if medically necessary and no alternative treatment is available. The biggest use of these is for asthma inhalers as there is a high prevalence of asthma in sports. The blue salbutamol inhaler is allowed but only up to 1600 micrograms in 24 hours (each puff has 100 micrograms, so 16 puffs per day). A standard relief dose is usually two puffs, so 16 or more would indicate that their asthma is not adequately controlled or that they were seeking advantage through over use. Other asthma drugs, such as terbutaline, are banned at all times without a TUE. However it isn’t just asthma that is affected, any illness or condition that may affect an athlete may have medication that is required on the banned list. Interestingly there are has been lots of talk in the last year or so about the apparent increase of thyroid conditions in professional sports (including at least one 2012 medallist, Galen Rupp), but the drug required to treat this condition is not banned and therefore are not covered by TUEs.

The process required to get a sign off may vary according to the sport and the level of competition, must be followed if an athlete is to use any treatment that may contain a banned substance. If in doubt the sports governing body should be consulted (or the World Anti Doping Agency has a good web page to guide on the application here).





Kiwi readers note: TUE is not a miss spelling of TUI – the North Island beer, known for their humorous adverts, as shown on the right….

This one of particular relevance was seen on twitter. Controversially Lance Armstrong claimed a TUE for use of a corticosteroid for saddle sores during the 1999 Tour De France. At the time he had no TUE for this and once the drug was found in the urine he obtained a backdated TUE for a cream, however this was believed to be a convenient cover up for an injection a few weeks earlier (see USADA reasoned decision).





Why is this news now?

At the recent cycling Tour of Romandie (end of April/early May 2014) current Tour de France champion Chris Froome applied for and got a TUE for the use of prednisolone, a corticosteroid. Froome had had a chest infection and missed some racing, then on his return he reported a cough and increase in the symtomps he suffers as an asthmatic. Oral prednisolone (tablet form) is used to treat acute respiratory illnesses and so would have been entirely justified in this case but is banned for ‘in competition’ use. There was some debate over whether the correct procedure had been followed as the case was not put before a committee but the medication use was still agreed by all the required parties.

The WADA, as the general overseeing body of anti doping, have reviewed Froome’s application for TUE and declared to Cyclingnews:

“WADA is satisfied that the UCI’s decision to grant a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) to Chris Froome was conducted according to the rules of the International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (ISTUE), and therefore will not be reviewing this case any further”


So that should be the end of it? Well yes and no. David Walsh has had a dig at Team Sky in the Sunday Times this week (behind their paywall) suggesting not that they cheated but that they are not following the strict ethical guidelines they suggested they would. Team Sky previously stated that they would not allow a cyclist to compete if they required additional medical treatment as it could lead to further illness or injury for the athlete.



EDITED: Within minutes of posting this I have seen that the WADA have suggested that they are angry with the UCI for allowing the medical director too much lee way rather than going through committee channels as suggested above…

A reports in ‘Le Journal du Dimanche‘ suggests that while WADA still agree the treatment was justified they are concerned that the process was not properly followed. They also suggest that if Team Sky had signed up to the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling, a group of 11 out of the 18 pro cycling teams) then the rider would have to be rested for 10 days following oral corticosteroids. This anger from WADA will undoubtedly give Brian Cookson, the UCIs new president, a headache but will force him to change the process to comply with processes of WADA to show the ‘ethical’ platform he was elected on.



So is a TUE a way of skirting the drug rules and gaining an advantage? In some cases this will be the case but in many cases it is completely legitimate. No data is published on the TUEs or who has what drug use when, as this would breach a patients medical confidentiality. This does then lead to rumours spreading around about the process and who is using what….

http://www.weareforensic.co.uk/tue-therapeutic-use-exemptions-or-legitimised-drug-taking/

 

[Digger]

Cound's twitter Feed today is amazing!

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Cound's twitter Feed today is amazing!

Holy crap. WTF is she smoking over there? Calling Cookson out and saying UCI has unethical people working there when those same people are the ones handing out TUEs to her man Froome.

dafuq?

 

[thehog]

Not sure what to say

 

[Dazed and Confused]

The Dawg made a huge mistake asking Cound to resign from her job and become a "housewife".

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Not sure what to say

Smoking her socks, the very thing she once accused of walshy doing. iirc

 

[neineinei]

Not sure what to say

What is this about? Where the leak came from?

 

[Beech Mtn]

Never thought it possible, but suddenly find myself longing for the good old days when Hein was in charge. 'Cause Verbruggy wouldn't put up with this ****. Dawg would pop a poz the day before the Tour and go home in the midst of a vast media circus.

Hell, even Lance knew you don't **** with the UCI.

 

[thehog]

Never thought it possible, but suddenly find myself longing for the good old days when Hein was in charge. 'Cause Verbruggy wouldn't put up with this ****. Dawg would pop a poz the day before the Tour and go home in the midst of a vast media circus.

Hell, even Lance knew you don't **** with the UCI.

That's what I was thinking as well! Hein would have this shut down faster than you can say "your blood values are of concern please come in for a chat"....

 

[sniper]

Not sure what to say

great stuff from michelle.
me thinks it's about time we start supporting her on her quest for justice.
we appear to have shared interests.

 

[BYOP88]

Cound the gift that keeps giving.

 

[sniper]

Never thought it possible, but suddenly find myself longing for the good old days when Hein was in charge. 'Cause Verbruggy wouldn't put up with this ****. Dawg would pop a poz the day before the Tour and go home in the midst of a vast media circus.

Hell, even Lance knew you don't **** with the UCI.

true story

 

[the sceptic]

Now we know why Froome finished in the gruppetto in the US pro challenge last year. He had asthma

 

[del1962]

Just a minute, I thought half the clinic thinks Froomey has some special UCI protection

 

[Walkman]

Never thought it possible, but suddenly find myself longing for the good old days when Hein was in charge. 'Cause Verbruggy wouldn't put up with this ****. Dawg would pop a poz the day before the Tour and go home in the midst of a vast media circus.

Hell, even Lance knew you don't **** with the UCI.

Uhm, UCI covered up Lance positive. I hardy doubt he was afraid of them...

 

[the sceptic]

Just a minute, I thought half the clinic thinks Froomey has some special UCI protection

Why do you think they gave him the express TUE?