Pressure grows on Brailsford
CYCLING SCANDAL
THE pressure intensified on Team Sky last night after Sir Dave Brailsford was challenged to explain why he said a cycling official had travelled to France to meet a leading female rider when he was in fact delivering a mystery medical package to the Sir Bradley Wiggins-led British road team.
Emma Pooley, the Olympic silver medallist, is understandably unhappy that she has been dragged into the controversy by the Team Sky chief.
Brailsford told Sportsmail that Simon Cope — a former British Cycling coach and current boss of Wiggins’s own cycling team — did not travel to France on June 12, 2011 with a medical package ordered by the Team Sky doctor but to meet Pooley. Sportsmail then informed Brailsford that Pooley was in fact racing 687 miles away in Spain on that day.
Pooley confirmed as much to Sportsmail last week but yesterday she spoke to Cycling News, stating that what Brailsford said ‘looks bad’ and is ‘at best silly and careless’.
Pooley said her phone had been inundated with messages and calls since the publication of the original Sportsmail story late last Thursday.
‘The only thing I know is where I was on June 12 and I absolutely was not meeting anyone from British Cycling, anywhere,’ she said. ‘ Certainly not Simon Cope at La Toussuire.
‘I was at a stage race in Spain losing the yellow jersey on a descent in the rain. I can distinctly remember it because it was a bit of a disaster. I looked up my old training diary to see if I’d forgotten or anything and I’ve still got the flight numbers from how I got home. I would have got home at around midnight and I certainly didn’t go to France.’
Brailsford and Team Sky have not yet clarified why a meeting with Pooley was given as an explanation for Cope’s trip. It certainly was not something Brailsford guessed at because Sportsmail became aware that Pooley was being used as the reason for the trip days before Brailsford met with this newspaper to respond to questions about Cope.
Pooley is understandably baffled and would like Brailsford to explain himself.
‘I have no idea why they would have said that someone was coming to meet me. I don’t know,’ she said.
‘I’m the kind of person who keeps records of everything. Maybe it was an honest mistake. It’s clearly quite a serious issue because it’s about the perception of cycling, and anti-doping.
‘I think you should check statements before you come out with that kind of thing.
‘When you’re being questioned about something as important as this you shouldn’t just come out with guesses and if it is an honest mistake then he should be checking his facts. It doesn’t matter to me, it just looks bad for them. It’s at best silly and careless.’
As Sportsmail revealed, Wiggins, Team Sky and British Cycling are now the subject of a UK Anti-Doping investigation that is centred on the package couriered by Cope.
UKAD would only confirm that they are investigating ‘an allegation of wrongdoing in cycling’, which was extended on Friday to include an allegation made by the disgraced former Sky rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke that a controversial but currently legal painkiller was being liberally distributed to British riders at the 2012 World Championships.
On Friday UKAD investigators made an unscheduled visit to the National Cycling centre in Manchester that houses the offices of British Cycling and Team Sky.
The doctor at the centre of both allegations is Richard Freeman, who over the years formed an extremely close bond with Wiggins and was with the all-conquering British track team at the Olympic Games in Rio.
On Saturday, British Cycling took the decision to withdraw Freeman from this week’s Road World Championships in Qatar.
British Cycling programmes director Andy Harrison said: ‘This was a decision taken with the best interests of Richard and the riders.’
According to insiders, Freeman was long seen as ‘Brad’s doc’, so much so that other riders within Team Sky and British Cycling grew resentful about their relationship.
It was not helped by the fact that Wiggins would allow Freeman to travel on his private jet — after Wiggins began to command more than £4million a year in salary at Sky he would hire them regularly to return from races — while denying fellow riders the luxury.
And within Team Sky Wiggins was renowned for not wanting to use the nominated race doctor, preferring instead to work only with Freeman. It helped that the two live close to one another in Lancashire.
Wiggins was photographed yesterday on a training ride near the home he shares with his family.
He has said he welcomes the UKAD investigation, and British Cycling and Team Sky both deny any wrongdoing.
Freeman has not responded to countless requests to speak.
UK Anti-Doping have confirmed that they are investigating an allegation of ‘wrongdoing in cycling’ following Sportsmail’s story concerning the medical package.
The investigation has been extended to include an allegation made by the disgraced former Team Sky rider, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, that a pain-killer cycling bosses want to see banned — tramadol — was being freely distributed among British riders at the 2012 World Championships.
The doctor at the centre of both allegations is Richard Freeman, who on Saturday was withdrawn from travelling with the British team to this week’s Road World Championships in Qatar.
When Sportsmail questioned Sir Dave Brailsford about the package, which was couriered by Simon Cope, then a coach at British Cycling and now the boss of Team Wiggins, the Team Sky principal said Cope had travelled to France to see Britain’s Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley. Pooley has since confirmed she was 687 miles away on the date in question, racing in Spain. British Cycling have confirmed Cope made the journey to deliver medication requested by Team Sky. Brailsford (below) also told Sportsmail it was not possible that Wiggins and Dr Freeman could have had an alleged private meeting on the back of the Team Sky bus after the final stage of the 2011 Dauphine Libere. This was because the bus had left with other riders before Wiggins had completed his post-race duties. A video discovered on YouTube showed Wiggins made it back to the bus before it left. Last Friday UK AntiDoping investigators swooped on the Manchester velodrome — the headquarters of British Cycling and Team Sky.