Chris Froome remains in SPOTY running despite failed drugs test

The BBC had no plans on Wednesday to expel Chris Froome from the shortlist for its Sports Personality of the Year Award after he failed a drugs test.

Telegraph Sport has learnt the four-time Tour de France winner is poised to remain among the 12 contenders for the prestigious prize at Sunday’s glittering ceremony at Liverpool’s Echo Arena.

Froome is fighting to avoid being banned and stripped of his Vuelta a Espana title after excess levels of asthma medication Salbutamol were found in his system during his historic triumph in September.

The achievement - on the back of a fourth Tour de France victory which made him the first rider to win the Vuelta after the same year’s Tour - ensured he was among the bookmakers’ favourites to be named Sports Personality of the Year.

But he drifted on Wednesday from 9-1 third favourite to 40-1 fifth favourite with William Hill to win the public vote, and was no longer odds on to finish in the top three for the first time.

“Given that he has failed to win Spoty despite winning the Tour three times already, the latest revelations will not help his chances of doing so this year,” William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly told the Telegraph.

Froome, whose failure to finish in the top three previously has been blamed on him being born in Kenya and on the drugs scandals to have engulfed British cycling in recent years, was not planning to attend Sunday’s ceremony even before news of his failed drugs test emerged.

He told the BBC he would be on a warm-weather training camp in Mallorca and to travel to Liverpool would disrupt his preparations to become the first rider to hold the Tour, Vuelta and Giro d’Italia titles simultaneously for 35 years.

Froome was also a no-show last week after being named Sportsman of the Year at the Sports Journalists’ Association British Sports Awards, accepting the oldest prize of its kind in the UK via video message.

Telegraph Sport has contacted the SJA for comment.