UCI to investigate Chris Froome claim over lack of drug tests

Tour winner Chris Froome said three top hopes for this year’s race have not been tested at a training camp (Getty Images)

The world governing body has said it will investigate claims made by Chris Froome that he has not been drug-tested during a fortnight at a Tour de France training camp in Tenerife.

The Briton, who won the Tour last year, also said on Twitter that Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali had not been tested either.

He tweeted: “Three major TDF contenders staying on Mt Teide and no out of competition tests for the past 2 weeks. Very disappointing.”

Froome has been training at the high-altitude camp with Sky team-mates ahead of next month’s Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour, which starts in Yorkshire on 5 July. He added: “To clarify I am one of those 3 and I think it’s in all our best interests to be able to prove we are clean no matter where we train.”

A Union Cycliste Internationale spokesman said yesterday: “The UCI has seen the comment by Tour de France winner Chris Froome regarding a lack of out-of-competition testing at Mount Teide, Tenerife. Out-of-competition testing is clearly an essential component of any effective anti-doping programme and we are looking into the matter with the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation, which is responsible for anti-doping tests.”

In an interview with Cycling News, Froome added: “I’ve asked around with other teams just out of interest, because we’ve been up here before and not been tested. So I just wanted to see if it was the same case for everyone, but none of them, from what I could gather, had been tested either.

“We’re the ones that have to stand in front of the television cameras in July and justify performances. The probability is that whoever is in the yellow jersey in July is going to have to answer questions and if we’re not getting tested that doesn’t look good.

“We’re doing everything we can to show that cycling has turned a page, but things like this don’t help.”

Froome has never failed a drugs test but was repeatedly questioned about doping during his winning Tour de France campaign. Contador was banned for two years in 2012, backdated to January 2011, and stripped of his 2010 Tour de France victory after testing positive for clenbuterol. The Spaniard has always blamed contaminated meat.