Wiggo was given legal medicine

The doctor at the centre of a doping rules row involving British cycling great Bradley Wiggins has insisted he gave the multiple Olympic champion a legal decongestant.

UK Anti-Doping is currently investigating just exactly what was in the contents of a now infamous ‘jiffy bag’ sent to Dr Richard Freeman at the end of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine race in France amid suggestions it could have contained a banned substance.

Richard Freeman, the then Team Sky doctor, has said the package contained the legal decongestant Fluimucil.

Freeman had been due to appear before a committee of British lawmakers on March 1 but was too ill to attend.

In that hearing Nicole Sapstead, the head of United Kingdom Anti-Doping, said it was impossible for her to be certain about the contents of the package as Freeman had told her the relevant medical records had disappeared when his laptop was stolen while on holiday in Greece in 2014.

It has been alleged that the package contained the banned corticosteroid triamcinolone.

Freeman was due to appear before the same committee of MPs on that date but withdrew, citing ill health.

However, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee has now published a letter it received from Freeman in which he said the package contained “only Fluimucil.”

Freeman said the Fluimucil was for use in a nebuliser and that many doctors believe it to be “helpful in managing stage riders, who... are prone to chestiness and excess respiratory mucus production” because of the demands of elite-level cycling.

Team Sky, Wiggins and Freeman have all repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Last week five-time Olympic gold medallist Wiggins promised to “shock a few people” when he finally comments on the case after the UKAD inquiry is complete. AFP