No charges as Wiggins cleared
and former staff at British Cycling and Team Sky, UKAD has been unable to prove or disprove Dr Freeman’s claim.
They are now closing the case unless new evidence comes to light but have passed on information to the General Medical Council, the body which regulates medical practitioners in the UK.
It is understood to relate to Dr Freeman, who is the one key witness in this saga UKAD has been unable to question in person as he is unwell with a stress-related illness.
Freeman resigned from his position at British Cycling last month.
UKAD said: “Put simply, due to the lack of contemporaneous evidence, UKAD has been unable to definitively confirm the contents of the package. The significant likelihood is that it is now impossible to do so.”
But the decision still leaves questions.
Fancy Bears, the Russian hacking group, revealed Wiggins had medical exemptions to use the banned drug triamcinoline at the 2011 and 2012 Tours de France – he won the latter to become the first Briton to win the Tour – and the 2013 Giro d’Italia. Britain’s most successful Olympian, along with British Cycling and Team Sky, have always denied any wrongdoing but the whiff of impropriety has taken this case before two Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committees and cast a huge shadow over British cycling.
It was at the first of those DCMS hearings last December that British Cycling’s bosses admitted they did not know what was in the package, only for Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford to tell MPs that Dr Freeman had told him it was fluimucil and it was administered by a nebuliser to treat Wiggins’ allergies.
Wiggins, who won five Olympic gold medals, said: “I welcome confirmation that no anti-doping charges are to be brought.
“It has always been the case that no such charges could be brought against me as no anti-doping violations took place. I am pleased that this has finally been confirmed publicly.
“Being accused of any doping indiscretion is the worst possible thing for any professional sports person, especially when it is without any solid factual basis and you know the allegation to be categorically untrue.”