Chris Froome’s doping case is likely to remain unresolved beyond this year’s Tour de France, meaning road cycling’s showcase event will probably be overshadowed by a legal battle over whether he should take part in the race.

It emerged on Friday evening that cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has paved the way for disciplinary proceedings against Froome by sending his adverse doping test at the Vuelta a España to a tribunal. That means a verdict will almost certainly not be reached before the Tour de France.

ASO, the French company that runs the Tour, has a level of discretion on whom it registers for its event and has no intention of letting a rider race with a potential anti-doping violation hanging over him.

The Tour de France organisers are also determined that Froome will not race in this year’s event if his salbutamol case has not been resolved.

As a result, it now looks increasingly likely that there will be a legal dispute over whether he can participate.

A urine test given during the Vuelta a España showed Froome had twice the permitted level of the asthma medication salbutamol in his system. The four-times Tour de France winner and his employers, Team Sky, had hoped the UCI would rule there was no disciplinary case to answer. But the Legal Anti-Doping Services branch of the governing body has now rejected the initial explanations suggested by Froome and his team.

It is believed Froome’s lawyer, Mike Morgan, requested and was refused access to anti-doping samples that the Briton provided in the days before his adverse drugs test. Another possible defence Froome considered was calling into question the salbutamol test and the limit of 1,000 nanograms per millilitre as determined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Froome’s failed drugs test was revealed by the Guardian and the French newspaper Le Monde in December. He has always maintained he never broke the rules. “I am doing everything in my power to get it resolved as quickly as possible,” he said in early March. “I try to stay focused.”

Froome, 32, is currently preparing for the Giro d’Italia, which begins on 4 May in Israel, and has no intention of withdrawing from that event. “For now he is focused on the idea of doing the Giro and the Tour,” said Nicolas Portal, sports director of Team Sky. “What he would like is that the UCI can give a decision right away. Because it’s not ideal to prepare races like that.”

A German judge, Ulrich Haas, will oversee Froome’s case if it reaches court, according to the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. Wada’s director general, Olivier Rabin, said of the adverse salbutamol finding that “the rule has been established for a long time, the allowed level has not changed and similar cases have already been judged by CAS”.

Froome has already finished 10th in the Ruta del Sol and 34th in the Tirreno-Adriatico this season and will use the Tour des Alpes as his last warm-up for the Giro.