WIGGINS’ DEFENCE IN HIS OWN WORDS
WHAT WAS IN THAT PACKAGE?
God knows, your guess was as good as mine. I won the Dauphine. The first time I became aware of a package was when the Daily Mail contacted me in October 2016. But the way it has been reported is as if I have ordered this package and I am waiting for DHL to deliver it for me, and I have got to sign for it ‘thanks for the medical package’. I don’t run the logistics of the team. I was busy doing my job.
ON SKY LOSING MEDICAL RECORDS
I went to a thing in Nice last year and the ex-team chef was there. He was saying there’s a Whatsapp group and they have to see what’s left on the table after they’ve cooked a meal and ‘there’s this much rice and this much pasta’ and they can work out from that how much carbs everyone’s had. The first thing I said [is] it’s a shame they couldn’t keep a bloody record of what was in this package that went out because we wouldn’t be here now — there wouldn’t have been a Daily Mail article.
WOULD YOU HAVE WON THE TOUR WITHOUT TRAMCINOLONE?
Well, had I had an asthma attack, no, probably not. No.
MPS SAY IT ENHANCED PERFORMANCE...
Not true at all. There was medical need for it. This was about bringing me back to a level playing field.
DID YOU CROSS AN ETHICAL LINE?
No. We didn’t, not at any point in my career.
YOU DIDN’T CHEAT?
One hundred per cent, never in my career. I worked. These allegations, it’s the worst thing to be accused of, but it is also the hardest thing to prove you
haven’t done.
DAVID MILLAR SAYS THE DRUG IS INCREDIBLY STRONG
What can I say to that?
YOU CAN’T SIT HERE AND SAY IT DIDN’T ENHANCE YOUR PERFORMANCE?
No I can’t. That’s the key, intention. I won every bike race up to that point, I’d won every time trial that season and I continued that pattern through the Tour. It wasn’t me coming out of the blue, this was me on an 18-month progression. Intention, that’s the key. You tell me there was (performance enhancement). There may well have been, yeah, but they were the rules at the time to treat this problem. That’s what I was prescribed. I can’t change the last five years.
WHY DID YOU TAKE TRIAMCINOLONE BEFORE THREE RACES?
Because of the type of grass pollen I am allergic to. The grass pollen goes in seasons, and this particular strain of grass pollen I was allergic to, it was at a heightened period during June and July. These problems flared up riding through fields and we are riding for three weeks at a time through France.
REPORT SUGGESTS YOU HAVE TAKEN THE DRUG NINE TIMES?
I don’t know where it has come from. That’s completely malicious. I would like to see some evidence to back that up. This is someone trying to smear me.
SHOULD DAVE BRAILSFORD GO?
Well, I still think that what he’s done for the sport, I still think that it will be a shame if he had to go when a lot of this is a report based on rumour and anonymous sources. They’ve already admitted fault for those years in terms of record-keeping and stuff. I think once things are substantiated and if proven, then maybe he should go, but until that is we can’t just take this report as set in concrete.
WHAT ABOUT YOUR KIDS?
I don’t mind getting a flogging, if it’ll help me I’ll go back to Henry VIII times and stick my head in one of those things and get people to flog me but it’s the kids. People see what’s reported and they get a hammering at school and it’s disgusting.
MANY PEOPLE WILL WATCH THIS AND HAVE BELIEF. OTHERS WON’T. HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL?
That’s the sport that we’re in. It’s the most scrutinised sport in the world.
TEAM SKY WAS MEANT TO PROVIDE TRUST. THERE’S NOT MUCH LEFT...
I can’t control that, what people are going to think or not. All I can tell you is what I experienced. I’m not in control of what people are going to make of it. You’ve also got to remember that some people, whatever you’re going to do is never going to be good enough. I just don’t know any more in this sport. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. This is an abridged version of an interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan