UK wanted to ban drugs at centre of storm

THE ethical position of Team Sky and British Cycling on the use of performance-enhancing drugs has come under more scrutiny after it emerged that UK anti-doping chiefs called for the two substances at the centre of the current crisis — triamcinolone and tramadol — to be banned. Sir Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky have been accused of abusing the exemption system after receiving a certificate to inject the fivetimes Olympic champion with triamcinolone before his win in the 2012 Tour de France — and before two other major races. Even a Team Sky rider, Nicolas Roche, said earlier this week that it was ‘ethically wrong’. But another former Team Sky rider, convicted doper Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, said that the powerful pain killer tramadol was being freely distributed among British riders at the 2012 world cycling championships. The doctor at the centre of the Wiggins controversy and the Tiernan-Locke allegations is Richard Freeman. He was the Team Sky doctor and now the British Cycling team doctor and is being investigated by UK Anti-Doping. Among the ‘allegations of wrongdoing’ is a mystery medical package ordered by Freeman and delivered by a British Cycling coach to the end of the Dauphine Libere race in France in 2011. Now it has emerged that UKAD asked the World Anti-Doping Agency to include both triamcinolone and tramadol on their 2017 banned list. Wiggins said he used triamcinolone on just three occasions to combat asthma and allergy symptoms but there is a history of the drug being abused in cycling. Leading riders — including the disgraced Lance Armstrong — used it for weight loss. The drug is banned in competition unless administered with a therapeutic use exemption. UKAD, however, wanted it banned out of competition as well. WADA did not change their policy for the 2017 list and it remains banned only in competition. They also left tramadol on their ‘watch list’ of drugs under consideration for a ban. There have been calls for tramadol to be banned because it can numb pain towards the end of races. Of major concern was that the drug is so strong it can affect a rider’s judgment, leading to crashes.