It’s a witch hunt... I’d have more rights if I’d murdered somebody
SIR Bradley Wiggins came out fighting last night over drug “smears” and claimed: “I would have more rights if I had murdered someone.”
The cycling legend insisted he was “100%” innocent and called on the unnamed whistleblower who accused him to come forward.
That source’s claims appear in a parliamentary report on doping in sport.
It said Wiggins and Team Sky used a drug, permitted under anti-doping rules, for enhancing performance rather than purely for medical use.
Wiggins, 37, insisted: “I refute that 100%. This is malicious, this is someone trying to smear me. “I am having to deal with the fallout.” He described the accusations against him as a “witch hunt” and said his children, Ben, 12, and Isabella, 10, were “getting a hammering at school”.
Wiggins told the BBC: “I would have had more rights if I had murdered someone than in this process.
“I don’t know what his [the source’s] motivation is. It [the use of the drug] was completely under medical need.
“I am having to deal with the fallout; I am left in the middle trying to pick up the pieces. It is a malicious allegation made by an anonymous source.”
He said the damning report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee was “based on rumour”, adding: “Who are these sources? Come out, go on the record.”
The 2012 Tour de France winner went on the defensive as he faced calls for his knighthood to be stripped from him.
And ex-Olympic athlete Roger Black, 51, said five-time gold medallist Wiggins needed “to prove his innocence”.
FAILURES
He said: “There are so many grey areas in sport. There is something wrong here.
“The questions have been asked, but they haven’t been answered. Sir Bradley needs a right to reply, but he needs to prove his innocence.”
Wiggins was granted Therapeutic Use Exemptions, or TUE, to take triamcinolone – a corticosteroid used to treat asthma and allergies – shortly before the 2011 Tour de France, his 2012 Tour victory and the 2013 Giro d’Italia.
However, the source told MPs he used the drug to improve his performance, rather than for medical purposes.
While the report stated the allegation “does not constitute a violation of the anti-doping code” it claimed it “does cross the ethical line” set out by Team Sky founder Sir Dave Brailsford.
MPs called on Brailsford to “take responsibility for these failures”.
They also said Lord Coe, president of athletics’ world governing body the IAAF, gave “misleading answers” in evidence about his knowledge of doping allegations in Russian athletics.
And the committee was also “shocked” that athlete Sir Mo Farah received an injection of the legal supplement L-carnitine before the 2014 London Marathon.
It was not recorded on his medical records but Farah has insisted the jab did not breach any rules.
Yesterday the world of cycling was rocked by the claims about Wiggins and Team Sky.
Ex-British Cycling president Tony Doyle said: “It leaves the reputation of Sir Bradley, David Brailsford and Team Sky in tatters. It is very worrying for the sport I love to see it dragged through the mire.”
Olympic track cycling gold medallist Victoria Pendleton said of the claims: “They are very shocking allegations, and I must admit, when I saw them, my heart did sink.”
The MPs’ report referred to an incident where former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman received a “mystery package” for Wiggins on June 12, 2011.
This was the final day of the Criterium du Dauphine in France – a race Wiggins won.
At the request of Freeman, coach Shane Sutton asked British Cycling
coach Simon Cope to bring the package – allegedly in a sealed “Jiffy bag” – to La Toussuire in the Alps, where the event finished. Both Cope and Sutton said they did not know what was in the package.
But Sutton told the committee he believed Freeman gave the substance inside it to Wiggins after the race, adding Freeman had told him: “Brad’s been sorted.” UK Anti-Doping probed the incident in 2016 amid claims the Jiffy bag contained triamcinolone, but it failed to establish if this was true.
Freeman has insisted the package contained a legal decongestant.
If Wiggins was given triamcinolone without a TUE, it would be in violation of anti-doping rules. This carries a twoyear ban and loss of results. The MPs claimed he may have been treated with the drug on up to nine occasions in a four-year period. They added: “It would be hard to know what possible medical need could have required such a seemingly excessive use of this drug.”
Yesterday Piers Morgan told Good Morning Britain viewers Wiggins should come out and say what was in the Jiffy bag. He added: “We don’t give knighthoods to cheats. Sir Bradley.”
Retailer Halfords, which stocks Wiggins’ range of cycling products, said it was reviewing its contract with him.
Theresa May’s official spokesman was asked if Wiggins should keep his knighthood. He replied: “That’s not something we ever comment on.”
Team Sky has issued a firm denial of the allegations, and reiterated its commitment to clean cycling.
Wiggins, who retired in 2016, is our most decorated Olympian of all time with five golds, one silver and two bronze.
The dad-of-two, also became our first Tour de France winner in 2012.
He was knighted in 2013.
There is something wrong here. Sir Bradley needs to prove his innocence ROGER BLACK MBE FORMER OLYMPIC 400M MEDALLIST