Great Britain. On 17 October 2017, he won his third Vélo d'Or award as the best rider of the 2017 season. Excessive level of an asthma drug at Vuelta On 13 December 2017, the UCI announced that Froome had returned an "Adverse Analytical Finding" (AAF) for almost twice his allowed dose of salbutamol, an asthma medication. Both the A and B samples revealed urinary salbutamol concentration in excess of the 1000–1200 ng/mL threshold of "therapeutic use". The threshold for salbutamol is 1000 ng/mL and the decision limit, taking into account measurement uncertainty, is 1200 ng/mL. The test was taken after stage 18 of the Vuelta a España. In a statement, Froome commented: "My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so I followed the team doctor's advice to increase my salbutamol dosage. As always, I took the greatest care to ensure that I did not use more than the permissible dose." Under new WADA rules, compensation has been made for urine concentration and dehydration, under which Froome's level has been lowered to 1,429 ng/mL rather than 2,000 ng/mL. Subsequently, Froome took much of the off-season contacting experts and reading reports on the situation. Following the leaking of test results to The Guardian and Le Monde newspapers, the newspaper article stated that ' [this] ...threatens to damage his reputation as one of Britain's most successful athletes.' His team were asked to explain the high levels of the drug revealed in the test, and if not adequately explained it would have resulted in a ban from the sport. His case has been widely criticised by fellow cyclists and in January 2018 UCI president David Lappartient recommended that he was suspended by until his case was resolved. In February 2018 Dave Brailsford defended Froome saying "For me, there's no question, he's done nothing wrong – no question, no question, no question." He went on to say that he believed Froome was innocent and that he felt the case shouldn't have been made public. On 2 July 2018, the UCI officially closed the investigation into Froome, stating that the rider had supplied sufficient evidence to suggest that "Mr Froome's sample results do not constitute an AAF". 2018: Winning the Giro On 29 November 2017, Froome announced that he intended to participate in the 2018 Giro d'Italia in an attempt to complete the Giro-Tour double, marking his first start in the race since 2010. A win