The Tour de France winner had double the allowed level of legal asthma drug Salbutamol in his urine at the Vuelta a Espana
Team Sky’s Chris Froome has seen his odds for BBC Sports Personality of the Year drift from as short as 9/1 to 50/1 in places following this morning’s news he returned an “adverse” drugs test during the Vuelta a Espana.
Froome became the first Brit to win the three-week race earlier this year on the back of his successful defence of his Tour de France title.
The results of the test taken on 7 September, showed he had double the allowed legal asthma drug Salbutamol in his urine. The use of Salbutamol is permitted and no other samples taken from Froom during the competition needed further examination.
Despite this, bookies clearly believe the revelations will have a negative impact on the 32-year-old’s chances of landing the BBC award voted for by the British public.
Froome had received 8.93% of all bets placed on the market through Oddschecker in 2017, putting him fourth on the list behind current 1/5 favourite Anthony Joshua (21.85%), Jermain Defoe (14.42%) and Mo Farah (9.84%).
Oddschecker spokesperson George Elek: "Despite Tour de France glory in the past, Froome has never proven to be popular with SPOTY voters, so this controversy will surely rule him out of the running. Joshua is a solid favourite, who should have no issues getting more support than the cyclist."
