Wiggins used banned drug: UK committee
Bradley Wiggins used a banned powerful corticosteroid to enhance his performance while preparing to win the Tour de France in 2012, a British parliamentary committee said in a doping investigation report.
The committee accused Team Sky of crossing an “ethical line” after preaching zero tolerance.
The legislators said they received evidence that shows Team Sky sought a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for Wiggins to take triamcinolone “not to treat medical need” — asthma — “but to improve his power-to-weight ratio”.
“We believe this powerful corticosteroid was being used to prepare Bradley Wiggins, and possibly other riders supporting him, for the [2012] Tour de France,” the House of Commons select committee report said.
A UK Anti-Doping investigation that closed in November was unable to establish if Wiggins had received a decongestant or, as alleged, triamcinolone, which is banned in competition. Wiggins denied “any drug was used without medical need”.
Team Sky, headed by David Brailsford, defended their reputation and criticised “the anonymous and potentially malicious claim” by members of Parliament.
But the report from a committee investigating doping since 2015 casts doubt on the integrity of the team and their failure to keep accurate medical records.
Tour de France organisers said they had no comment.
The publication of the parliamentary report comes with Team Sky’s four-time Tour de France Parliamentary committee report champion, Chris Froome, under investigation by cycling’s world governing body for failing a doping test.
Froome has been ordered to explain why a urine sample he provided at the Spanish Vuelta in September showed a concentration of the asthma drug salbutamol at twice the permitted level. The Briton denies any wrongdoing.
Jim White
On May 6 1954, Roger Bannister achieved something which even today is a candidate for the most important moment in British sporting history.
On a chilly morning in Oxford, he set out to prove that something widely reckoned to be beyond the capability of man could, through planning and skilful application, be accomplished. And with a brilliant flourish, he became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.
On that day, Sir Roger, who has died at 88, gave notice to the generations to come that, whatever we wish to accomplish, in whatever field or discipline, the impossible is nothing more than another obstacle along the way.
The tale of what he did never pales in the retelling. For decades, the sub-four minute mile had seemed beyond human capability. Medical experts insisted it would place such a strain on the body that even to attempt it was to risk death. The closest anyone had managed was 4min 01.4s by Sweden’s Gunder Hagg in 1945. Like many, Bannister became obsessed with bettering the record, even turning down the opportunity to represent Britain at the 1952 Olympics to concentrate on achieving it.
By the time he felt ready, he had left Oxford University and was a junior doctor in London. He caught the train, made his way to the track on Iffley Rd that would later bear his name, and set off, cheered by an expectant roar from the crowd of 3000 gaberdine-clad students.
He was supported by pacemakers Sir Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher, the trio racing for the Amateur Athletic Association against three Oxford University athletes. With little more than half a lap left, Bannister burst past Chataway and kicked for the line, surging through the finishing rope before falling into the arms of a friend, exhausted.
Seconds later the stadium announcer, Norris McWhirter, delivered the news: “Result of Event Eight: One mile. First, R G Bannister of Exeter and Merton Colleges, in a time which, subject to ratification, is a new track record, British native record, British allcomers’ record, European record, Commonwealth record and world record — three minutes . . . ”
The crowd’s roar drowned out the rest (it was three minutes 59.4 seconds). And far from dying, Bannister simply changed, caught the train back to London and