WIGGINS GOES TO WAR
CYCLING SCANDAL Olympian comes out swinging as MPs say he is not in the clear FOR ALL BREAKING SPORTS NEWS VISIT dailymail.co.uk/ sport
SIR Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky were swiftly reminded last night that they have not been exonerated after UK Anti-Doping officers were forced to close their jiffy bag investigation because of insufficient evidence.
Both Team Sky and British Cycling have received stern letters from the agency, with UKAD chief executive Nicole Sap stead stressing that it had a ‘serious concern’ that ‘ a lack of accurate medical records’ meant they were unable to establish what was in the medical package delivered for Wiggins in June 2011.
The rider and his team responded with statements — with Wiggins calling for the whistleblowers who first raised concerns about the package to be exposed.
He decided to go on the attack despite the fact that the courage of the whistleblowers who came to this newspaper had revealedvealed serious flaws in medicalcal record-keeping at bothh Team Sky and Britishh Cycling, l ed to the resignation of team doctor Richard Freeman and revealed an unhealthy crossover between the professional road team andd the national governingng body.
Wiggins has said he hhas no memory of the package but complained bitterly yesterday that the last 14 months ‘ have been a living hell’.
But Damian Collins MP, the chairman of the DCMS select committee who are due to publish a potentially damning report on doping in sport next month, told
Sportsmail the drug investigators’ statement was ‘not an exoneration of anyone’.
Indeed Collins said the failure to keep proper records meant a ‘cloud now hangs over one of our greatest Olympians’ and merely highlighted the fact that the investigators ‘do not have the power they need’.
The investigation began 14 months ago, with Sportsmail revealing the details around a mystery medical package that was ordered by Dr Freeman for Wiggins and was delivered to La Toussuire in France to coincide with the finish of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine. It was a stage race Wiggins won but it has since been claimed he needed the medication because he had fallen ill.
When Sportsmail put a series of questions to Team Sky, its team principal Sir Dave Brailsford provided two alibis that proved to be untrue. He also tried to offer this newspaper the incentive of an alternative story.
But when anti-doping investigators then visited the national cycling centre in Manchester that is still home to both Team Sky and the ggoov veer rn ningbody,t hey discdiscovered Freeman had nonot kept proper records i in a medical room that, like him, had served both operations. More alarming still was the claim that Freeman hhad lost the laptop ccontaining key medical rerecords, insisting it had beebeen stolen while on a holidholiday in Greece. UK AAnti-tDoping have passed their evidence to the General Medical Council in the knowledge that they have regulatory powers that could enable them to access private medical records. Essentially, anti- doping stepped aside so the GMC can advance their own investigation.
In a statement issued yesterday, the drug investigator said it ‘does not intend to issue any anti-doping charges in relation to the package’ but would reopen the probe if more evidence came to light.
One major source of frustration f or anti- doping, and a major hindrance to the investigation, has been their inability to interview Freeman since the parliamentary hearing in March, with the former doctor for both Team Sky and British Cycling citing ill-health. Last month Freeman resigned from British Cycling.
Freeman ordered the medical package that was delivered for Wiggins by Simon Cope, a former British Cycling coach, on June 12, 2011, and while he has refuted the allegation that the package contained the banned corticosteroid triamcinolone — and i nstead contained a legal decongestant called Fluimucil — he has never been able to provide proof.
Anti- doping chief executive Sapstead said: ‘ I can confirm UKAD does not intend to issue any anti-doping charges as a result of the investigation into the package. Our investigation was hampered by a lack of accurate medical records being available at British Cycling.
‘This is a serious concern. In this case the matter was f urther complicated by the crossover between personnel at British Cycling and Team Sky.’
In a more detailed summary, UK Anti-Doping said it had ‘interviewed 37 individuals, including current and former employees of British Cycling and Team Sky (riders, medical professionals and other staff), and been provided with and reviewed a voluminous amount of documentation.
‘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.’
Other parts of the investigation remain open, however. As yet, antidoping investigators have been unable to establish why products containing testosterone were delivered to the national cycling centre.
Wiggins r esponded with an aggressively worded statement, complaining he had been the victim of a ‘ witch hunt’, expressing his frustration with the investigators and posing questions of his own.
‘It has always been the case that no such charges could be brought against me as no anti- doping violations took place,’ he said. ‘I am pleased that this has finally been confirmed publicly but there are a large number of questions regarding the investigation which I feel remain unanswered.
‘Being accused of any doping indiscretion 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. I have kept my silence throughout this period to allow UKAD to conduct their investigation in the most professional way possible and so as not to undermine it. This period of time has been a living hell for me and my family, full of innuendo and speculation. At times it has felt nothing less than a malicious witch hunt.
‘To say I am disappointed by some of the comments made by UKAD this morning is an understatement. No evidence exists to prove a case against me and in all other circumstances this would be an
unqualified finding of innocence. The amount of time it has taken to come to today’s conclusion has caused serious personal damage, especially as the investigation seems to be predicated on a news headline rather than real solid information.
‘UKAD’s findings this morning have left me with a series of my own questions: Where did the information come from to launch the investigation? Who was the source? What exactly did that person say and to whom?
Why did UKAD deem it appropriate to treat i t as a credible allegation?
Surely it is now in the public interest to reveal this source?’
Wiggins said he had handed over all medical records that were available to him but then seemed to express his own frustration with his former employers over record keeping.
‘The medical documentation concerning my treatment was something absolutely out of my control,’ he said. ‘I put ultimate trust in the team around me to do their jobs. Had the infrastructure for precise record keeping been in place this investigation would never have started.’
British Cycling issued a contrite statement, with new chief executive Julie Harrington admitting the governing body ‘did not meet the high standards that British Cycling today holds itself to’.
A Team Sky statement said: ‘We are pleased that UK Anti-Doping have concluded their investigation and that they will not be taking any further action.’