The riddle of cycling’s Jiffy bag courier
British Cycling official ‘doesn’t have a clue’ what he took to Sky
THE courier who took a mystery package to France for Team Sky finally spoke out this week, but succeeded only in highlighting more alarming inconsistencies about why this parcel was delivered in June 2011.
Simon Cope, the former British Cycling official, claimed he did not know what was in the package he took to La Toussuire on the day Bradley Wiggins (below) won the 2011 Dauphine Libere.
UK Anti-Doping are investigating ‘ allegations of wrongdoing in cycling’ after this newspaper revealed a medical package was delivered to Team Sky officials. British Cycling, Wiggins and Team Sky deny they have been in breach of any anti-doping regulations.
After numerous attempts to contact Cope over the past three weeks in a bid to get his side of the story, the current boss of Team Wiggins — Sir Bradley’s personal cycling team — returned my call yesterday. ‘I’m going to say this only once but I’d appreciate it if you’d stop bothering me,’ he said.
But the interview he did give to Cycling News, published late on Tuesday night, made very interesting reading, in particular when it came to his reason for the trip.
He now says, with clarity, that he was there in France on June 12, 2011, to deliver a package requested by Team Sky. Yet on September 25 he told an intermediary he travelled to meet Emma Pooley, the Olympic silver medallist.
A number of questions remain unanswered.
WHAT WAS IN THE PACKAGE?
COPE told Cycling News: ‘It was just an envelope, a Jiffy bag, a small Jiffy bag. As far as I know there could have been Speedplay pedals in there. I don’t have a clue what was in there.
‘It wasn’t something unusual, either. If people were going somewhere they’d just say, “Can you take this?”
‘There’s no way British Cycling are going to put something dodgy or illegal for them to take through customs. It’s not going to happen. It’s just madness.
‘You have to go through two sets of customs. Why are you going to take the risk?’
Last Thursday, October 6, British Cycling told Sportsmail that Cope had couriered medication to France at the request of Team Sky for one of their riders.
It is damaging enough to all concerned that Cope has claimed he passed through UK and French customs completely oblivious as to what he was carrying to France.
British Cycling have confirmed that the package contained medication for a so- far-unnamed Team Sky rider but Cope says he has no idea what he delivered to the finish of that year’s Dauphine in La Toussuire.
Cope said he was handed the package by a member of British Cycling staff. According to sources, it was a member of British Cycling medical staff.
Indeed, yesterday Cycling News asked Phil Burt, British Cycling’s lead physiotherapist and Team Sky consultant, if it was him. Cope had suggested it was in the interview.
‘I am happily and fully co-operating with the UKAD investigation and look forward to their report,’ said Burt. ‘To respect the integrity of their investigation I will not be commenting further.’
If it was Burt, it would seem unlikely he would have handed Cope pedals. Yesterday Sportsmail asked British Cycling if they could confirm the identity of the official who gave the package to Cope. They, too, said they are unable to comment while a UKAD investigation is ongoing.
WHO WAS THE MYSTERY PARCEL FOR?
COPE said: ‘It had nothing to do with Brad. I gave it to (Doctor) Richard Freeman. This parcel was asked for, for Richard Freeman. It could have been nasal strips or Band-Aids, I really don’t know.’
Freeman is Wiggins’ personal physician and in 2011 was the doctor for Team Sky. Today, he is the British Cycling team doctor, recently attending the Olympic Games. A decision has been made not to send him to this week’s World Championships in Doha.
WHY SAY THAT COPE WAS VISITING EMMA POOLEY?
IT WAS claimed Cope had gone to France to see Pooley on June 12, 2011, when she was in fact racing in Spain, 687 miles away from La Toussuire.
Cope told Cycling News: : ‘I think that got misconstrued with me being the women’s coach. That was part of my role as such. I was women’s coach in title, but I didn’t actually have a role in 2011 and I did a hell of a lot of work for Sky.
‘No one is questioning me going to the end of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, are they?’
He referenced Liege - Bastogne-Liege because he told Cycling News he had travelled to that race to see Olympic roadd race champion Nicole Cooke. There was not a women’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in 2011.
I first mentioned Cope and the role I believed he had played in transporting the medical package to France to a Team Sky official three weeks ago. On September 25 I was contacted by an intermediary, a personal friend from the cycling world. We discussed the original allegations about Cope’s trip and, with the best intentions, he contacted Sir Dave Brailsford and Cope in the hope of resolving what he could see was a potentially damaging situation for the sport.
He not only brokered the private meeting I had with Brailsford on September 27 but came back to me, having spoken to Cope, relieved to report that my information about a medical package was wrong.
Cope had told him he travelled to France to meet Pooley, not to courier a parcel requested by Freeman.
It took just five minutes to establish that this could not be true.
A simple search on the internet, ‘ Emma Pooley, June 12, 2011’, produced a link to Pooley’s personal website, which lists every professional race she has contested, year by year.
Not for one second did I imagine that Brailsford, Team Sky’s team principal, would also reference the fictitious Pooley meeting two days later. Surely he would check?
But on September 27 Brailsford did just that, informing me that Cope had travelled to La Toussuire in France that day to see Pooley.
I responded that Pooley was 687 miles away from there on June 12, 2011.
Brailsford could offer no explanation for such a glaring inaccuracy, compounding the situation the following day by trying to convince me that it was not possible Wiggins and Freeman had met on the Team Sky bus after the final stage of the Dauphine because the bus left before the race winner had completed his post- race commitments.
A video on YouTube would soon expose the inaccuracy of that claim as well.
WHY WAS COPE EVEN WORKING FOR SKY?
COPE said: ‘I’d been working with Sky a lot and been running training camps with Brad. I spent a month in Mallorca with Brad and the lads motor-pacing. I was doing a lot of floating.
‘I also ran numerous training camps and I was second DS ( directeur sportif) at numerous races that year.
‘I took Alex Dowsett (who rode for Team Sky from 2011-2013) to the Chrono des Nations. I was actually doing a lot for Sky. With all being true I was hoping to be DS there. It sounds like it was just this one job I did for Sky, but that’s not true, either. They don’t know the actual truth.’
Cope says he spent much of 2011 working for the privately funded, professional Team Sky, despite being a salaried coach for the publicly funded governing body.
A spokesman for British Cycling told Sportsmail last week that Cope’s trip to La Toussuire would have been paid for by his
organisation but then charged back to Team Sky. A system was in place where British Cycling would invoice Team Sky at the end of each month.
That relationship between British Cycling and Team Sky is now under intense scrutiny — understandably so when the lines appear so blurred between the professional team and the governing body. It was the subject of a Deloitte Review in 2011.
Yesterday, Sportsmail asked British Cycling if all of Cope’s time spent serving Team Sky in 2011 had been charged back to the professional road outfit. They have said they were unable to comment because of the UKAD investigation.
We also asked UK Sport to check if Cope’s time working for Team Sky had been fully accounted for but had not received a response at the time of going to print.