Wiggins reveals ‘living hell’ after doping probe ditched
LONDON: British cycling great Bradley Wiggins said he and his family had been subjected to “living hell” after United Kingdom Anti-Doping said on Wednesday it would not be charging him over a mystery package he received in 2011.
Wiggins, the f irst British winner of the Tour de France, also warned he would consider his legal options after UKAD did not issue an “unqualified finding of innocence”.
A 14-month inquiry was launched in September 2016 after British newspaper the Daily Mail reported a mystery package meant for the now- retired Wiggins had been delivered to Team Sky during a 2011 race in France.
It was subsequently alleged the package contained a banned corticosteroid but Wiggins’s then doctor, Richard Freeman, insisted it was the decongestant fluimucil, a legal substance.
Freeman revealed he had lost a lone written record confirming this when his laptop was stolen while he was on holiday.
“This period of time has been a living hell for me and my family,” Wiggins, 37, said on Twitter.
Wiggins, Sky and British Cycling were all told they would not face any charges for wrongdoing after UKAD said they had been hampered by a lack of “contemporaneous evidence”.
Wiggins, the 2012 Tour winner, said he had been “hounded”, as he responded to UKAD’s announcement in a lengthy tweeted statement.
“It is the worst possible thing for any professional sportsperson, especially when it is without any solid factual basis and you know the allegation to be categorically untrue,” wrote Wiggins. — AFP