Tour de France winner supports permanent bans on cyclists found guilty of cheating

 Chris Froome, this year’s Tour de France winner, said he would be in favour of permanent bans for cyclists found guilty of using drugs.

Chris Froome celebrates his win at this year's Tour de France REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

 The 28-year-old Englishman faced a continuous stream of questions about doping throughout his tour. This year’s Tour de France was particularly tense as it followed on the heels of the downfall of previous winner Lance Armstrong who admitted in January this year to doping, despite previous denials throughout his career.

Froome believes the sport has moved on from its tainted past of scandals, but said he would feel more confident if those found guilty of cheating were banned for life from cycling.

“I definitely think there needs to be harsher penalties for people who break the rules” Froome told the Mail, a British national newspaper, today.

“I’m not so sure they should be allowed back into the sport at all….maybe I’d implement lifetime bans for people who did blood bags or EPO (erythropoietin, a chemical form of blood doping) or something that you know is 100 percent cheating” said this year’s winner.

“I’ve got faith in the testing procedures. We’ve had a few positives this year already and that goes to show those guys aren’t getting away with it anymore”, Froome added, possible in reference to stripping of titles of the once-revered winner Lance Armstrong.

Previously, drug testing took place only at races, but during an interview with Armstrong on American television at the beginning of the year, the former winner explained that testing had evolved and the emphasis now is on out-of-competition testing, and on testing over a long period of time. "The shift to ouf-of-compeition testing and biological passport really worked”; so much so that he was afraid of being caught.