Vuelta a Espana: Guillen wants Froome salbutamol case resolved before 2018 race begins
(Cyclingnews.com)

Vuelta a España race director Javier Guillen has called for a resolution to the Chris Froome salbutamol case before the start of the 2018 edition on August 25. Froome won last year´s Vuelta, but risks being stripped of the title after returning a positive test for salbutamol following stage 18. As salbutamol is a specified substance, Froome is free to race until the case is resolved. The Team Sky rider won the Giro d´Italia last month and looks set to line out at the Tour de France in July. `What is absolutely necessary for the 2018 Vuelta is to start out knowing who has won the Vuelta of 2017,` Guillen said in a press conference, according to Marca. `We can´t be in the position a year later of not knowing what has happened.`ADVERTISEMENT If Froome were to be sanctioned with a doping offence and stripped of his Vuelta title, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) would enter the record books as the winner of the 2017 Vuelta. When news of Froome´s salbutamol case first broke last December, Vuelta organiser Unipublic said that its position was one `of extreme caution.` Froome´s anti-doping sample contained twice the permissible threshold of salbutamol, but the case has proven to be a protracted one, with no resolution in sight some nine months on from the 2017 Vuelta. `Froome has won the Giro and we do not know what will happen with the rest of the races that he can ride. I get the feeling that with the passing of time it becomes more complicated,` Guillen said. `I do not know what we would do [if Froome were to ride the Vuelta - ed.] but I do know that the Vuelta must know who won in 2017 before the 2018 edition begins. You can read more at Cyclingnews.com