Bernard Hinault has called for the peloton to go on strike if Chris Froome takes part in the Tour de France, which gets underway on July 7. Froome returned a positive test for salbutamol en route to victory at last year`s Vuelta a España, but as salbutamol is a specified substance, the Team Sky rider is free to race until the case is resolved. `The peloton should put its foot down and go on strike saying: `If he`s at the start, we`re not starting!` Hinault told Ouest France. `The peloton is too nice. Others have been sanctioned, and everybody was in agreement, but they won`t sanction him because they say it was an abnormal control? No, it`s not an abnormal control... Ventolin, perhaps it`s not a big thing, perhaps that`s not what won him the Vuelta a España, we don`t know, but [at that level - ed.] it`s banned, and that`s it. The rules are the same for everybody...` Froome`s urine sample following stage 18 of the 2018 Vuelta contained 2,000ng/ml of salbutamol, twice the permissible limit. He has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he did not take more than the permitted number of puffs from his Ventolin inhaler.ADVERTISEMENT The case has moved slowly since news of the positive test was leaked to media in December of last year, and Froome has continued to race in the intervening period. He won the Giro d`Italia last month, though it is still unclear if that victory - and his Vuelta win of 2018 - will endure in the record books. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has repeatedly called for the case to be resolved ahead of the Grand Départ, though UCI president David Lappartient recently conceded that it was unlikely a verdict would be reached before July 7. Last week, Froome was in the Alps to reconnoitre some of the Tour`s mountain stages. Hinault, a five-time Tour winner and previously an ambassador for ASO, has been firm in his opposition to Froome`s participation at the Tour. On Wednesday, he compared Froome`s case with that of Alberto Contado ...
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