Wiggins reveals ‘living hell’ after doping probe ditched

British cycling great Bradley Wiggins said he and his family had been subjected to “living hell” after United Kingdom Antidoping said on Wednesday it would not be charging him over a mystery package he received in 2011. “This period of time has been a living hell for me and my family,” Wiggins told his Twitter followers. “At times it has felt like nothing less than a malicious witch hunt.”

A 14-month investigation by United Kingdom Anti-doping into allegations of wrongdoing at British cycling and Team Sky has ended with no charges being brought against either organisation due to a “lack of contemporaneous evidence”.

An inquiry was launched in September 2016 after British newspaper the Daily Mail reported a mystery package had been delivered to Richard Freeman, the doctor of now retired Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, then a Sky rider.

The package, reportedly delivered at the end of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine race in France, was alleged to have contained a banned corticosteroid, but Freeman

insisted it was the decongestant fluimucil, a legal substance.

United Kingdom Anti-doping (UKAD) said that despite conducting interviews with 37 current and former staff at both British cycling and Team Sky, it had been unable to prove or disprove Freeman’s claims.

UKAD said the investigation would now be closed unless new evidence came to light. “Due to the lack of contemporaneous evidence, UKAD has been unable to definitively confirm the contents of the package,” the body said on Wednesday.