MPCC calls on Team Sky to suspend Chris Froome

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The Movement for Credibility in Cycling (MPCC) has called on Team Sky to provisionally suspend Chris Froome until the case around his abnormal test for salbutamol at the 2017 Vuelta a Espana is settled.

"Chris Froome's abnormal test result triggered a huge public outrage," The MPCC said in a statement sent to the media. "When it comes to 'specified substance', such as salbutamol, provisional suspension is not mandatory and the rider is free to choose it or not. Nevertheless, MPCC wishes to make a statement on this topic."

The MPCC is a group that teams join voluntarily. Currently Team Sky are not among the seven WorldTour teams that have joined the program. In all, 43 teams have signed up to follow the MPCC's standards, which include an article that urges teams to "take responsibility to immediately suspend a rider receiving his first positive testing result. Each member team will inform the President of MPCC as soon as they acknowledge a positive test result sample A."

"These rules that the team members commit to were made with a clear purpose: transparency," the MPCC said in its Monday statement.

"This is the reason why MPCC and its Board of Directors, without making any assumption towards the final decision, asks Team Sky to suspend its rider on a voluntary basis, until the end of the procedure. This measure would allow the rider and its team to focus on their defense with serenity, but also to avoid tension among many managers and riders."

MPCC rules require any rider who needs corticoid treatments, even if authorised by a TUE, to sit out of competition for eight days. The group also took aim at former Team Sky and British Cycling coach Shane Sutton's comments that use of medicine via TUE was a way to gain a performance advantage.

"MPCC also requests that UCI opens an inquiry following Shane Sutton's statements. The former Team Sky and UK's national team's coach admitted that some of the medicine requiring a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) might have been use to enhance performance," the MPCC said in its statement.

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