Wiggins wants ‘sinister’ Jiffy bag details made public

LONDON: Bradley Wiggins has said he’s discovered “very sinister” details relating to the leak of his Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) and the so-called ‘Jiffy bag’ case which he now wants made public.

Two years ago, the ‘Fancy Bears’ hacking group, believed to be a Russian-based organisation, released information showing that now retired British cycling great Wiggins was allowed to use triamcinolone, an otherwise banned drug, ahead of his major races in 2011, 2012 and 2013, including the 2012 Tour de France which he won.

TUEs allow athletes to use otherwise banned drugs to treat recognised medical conditions.

The publication of Wiggins’s TUE history was followed by a 14month inquiry by United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) into whether a package delivered to Wiggins’s Team Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine — a race he won — contained the same drug.

UKAD, however, closed the case earlier this year without coming to a conclusion because of missing Sky medical records.

Wiggins, speaking during coverage of this year’s ongoing Tour de France on British broadcaster ITV4 on Saturday, said: “There are things that have come to light with this whole thing that we’ve found out since that are quite scary actually and it’s very sinister.

“We’re still not at the bottom of it, we’re finding new stuff out daily to do with the package that never was and all this stuff and it’s quite frightening actually.

“We’re still working on it, still trying to piece it all together. Not a legal team, just other people coming to us now and saying, ‘You know this has happened, don’t you?’

Wiggins’s TUEs did not contravene any existing rules but led to a wider debate on whether the system was capable of being abused and to some calls for all riders’ TUE history to be made public.