BRAILSFORD UNDER FIRE
Anti-doping boss hits out at Sky chief’s testimony
SIR DAVE Brailsford’s position as principal of Team Sky was looking precarious yesterday after evidence he gave to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee was described as ‘extraordinary’ by the UK’s most senior anti-doping official.
Less than 24 hours after Chris Froome declined to give Brailsford his unequivocal support when questioned on whether his boss still had sufficient credibility to lead the professional road cycling team, the Team Sky chief came under fire from UK Anti-Doping chairman David Kenworthy.
Speaking to the BBC, Kenworthy was scathing in his criticism of Brailsford’s responses to MPs’ questions concerning the medical package ordered by Team Sky for Sir Bradley Wiggins at the end of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine. Kenworthy also said evidence given by both Sky and British Cycling bosses was ‘very disappointing’.
Team Sky, British Cycling and Wiggins maintain there has been no wrongdoing but Kenworthy, who has been chairman of UKAD since its establishment in 2009, said: ‘There’s still no definite answer from anyone who was involved. I still don’t know what was in there; I’m no nearer finding out than you are. People could remember a package that was delivered to France, they can remember who asked for it, they can remember the route it took, who delivered it, the times it arrived. The select committee has got expense sheets and travel documents.
‘So everybody can remember this from five years ago but no one can remember what was in the package. That strikes me as being extraordinary. It is very disappointing.’
Three months after trying to provide the Daily Mail with alibis that proved to be incorrect — and then attempting to persuade the newspaper not to run the story at all by offering ‘something else’ — Brailsford told the select committee that the package taken to France by a British Cycling coach Simon Cope contained a legal decongestant that could have been bought at a local French pharmacy.
Brailsford insisted Cope, now the boss of Team Wiggins, was already planning to travel to the conclusion of the race Wiggins won but expenses forms and other documents provided to the committee by British Cycling show that flights and accommodation for Cope were booked on the day he took a train to Manchester to collect the package. The documents also show that if Wiggins (left) was ill during the race, as his former coach Shane Sutton told MPs, he had to wait four days to be treated. Cope collected the package on June 8, but the medication was not administered to the five-times Olympic champion until June 12, after he had secured the most significant victory of his road career thus far. Kenworthy was particularly dismissive of Brailsford’s revelation that Dr Richard Freeman had told him the package contained Fluimucil. He said UKAD investigators had not been given any documentation to support the claim.
When asked about Brailsford’s Fluimucil explanation, the former chief constable of North Yorkshire Police responded with an almost exasperated tone: ‘Well that’s what Dave Brailsford came out with at the hearing. But actually, if you recall, he didn’t say, “I know that’s what it was.” He said: “I have been told that’s what it was.”
British Cycling president Bob Howden had told MPs he did not know what was in the package but he and Brailsford agreed that there should be a paper trail to prove what the Jiffy bag contained.
Brailsford also suggested that Wiggins’ medical records had been provided to UKAD, which is understood to be news to the national antidoping agency.
Cope has said he does not know what was in the package despite having it in his possession for four days. He even claimed in one interview that the package had ‘nothing to do with Brad’.
When asked if British Cycling should have kept records of medication taken abroad by one of its coaches, Kenworthy said: ‘ One would think so, one would hope so.
‘Here’s an individual [Cope] who’s carrying a package containing medicine across international boundaries, and he’s no idea what’s in them. One could say he could be putting himself at risk if they are drugs which one could not properly transport. Someone should be inquisitive enough to say, “Well, what is it I’m actually taking?”’
Brailsford has already admitted handling the crisis ‘badly’, not least in his dealings with the Daily Mail.
And select committee chairman Damian Collins MP has said witnesses may be recalled along with Cope, Freeman and possibly even Wiggins. Collins has said it could depend on the outcome of the UKAD investigation.
Yesterday on the BBC, Collins added: ‘What it confirms is there appears to be no paper trail at all to determine what was in that package. The whole story doesn’t look good and it’s a story that has evolved over several months now.’
But the pressure is increasing on Brailsford. He is due at the Team Sky media day in Mallorca on Tuesday, with team officials disappointed that Froome could not support his beleaguered boss and both Sky and British Cycling most unhappy about Kenworthy’s comments.
If all those concerned thought the select committee hearing would mark the end of the crisis, they were very much mistaken. ‘ We’re not giving up on this, and we’ll dig and delve and find out what was in that package,’ added Kenworthy.
Team Sky told the BBC: ‘As we have said from the start, we are confident that there has been no wrongdoing. We are continuing to co-operate fully with UKAD and we look forward to the conclusion of the investigation.’
Wiggins retired from cycling under a cloud last month and Kenworthy added: ‘One of the tragedies of all this is you’ve got probably one of the greatest cyclists that the UK has produced, who’s just coming to his retirement, and all the talk is not about the successes that he’s had, but about this package.’
People can remember a package that was delivered to France five years ago, who asked for it, the route it took, who delivered it, the times it arrived... but no one can remember what was in it. That’s extraordinary UKAD CHAIRMAN DAVID KENWORTHY