Cycling royalty Hoy and Froome turn up heat on Wiggins as sport battles to save face
SIR BRADLEY Wiggins came under more pressure last night when both Sir Chris Hoy and Chris Froome insisted he has questions to answer over the use of a banned substance for medical reasons.
The crisis engulfing Team Sky increased at the weekend when team principal Sir Dave Brailsford admitted making the situation a ‘damn sight worse’ by giving inaccurate answers about the mystery package delivered to the team after Wiggins won a race in France in June 2011.
Six-time Olympic champion Hoy said of Wiggins: ‘He definitely has to answer questions — otherwise there will be a question mark hanging over him. It’s not been a great few weeks for Team Sky or for Bradley in particular. He needs to clear his name and explain what the situation was.’
Froome, meanwhile, did nothing to ease the crisis at Team Sky, suggesting the ‘validity’ of Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France victory was now under serious scrutiny.
Judging by the interview he gave in Paris at the unveiling of the 2017 Tour route, Froome is far from happy with damage to the whole team’s reputation.
As reigning Tour de France champion, Froome said he was among the majority of Sky riders who did not even know that Wiggins had applied for an exemption to use the controversial corticosteroid, triamcinolone, before the 2011 and 2012 Tours as well as the 2013 Giro d’Italia. Froome said ‘mistakes had been made along the way’ with regard to Sky’s handling of the furore over the mystery medical package that is now at the centre of a UK Anti-Doping investigation. Froome and other riders — as well as senior staff — were unimpressed with Brailsford’s attempts to clear up the situation. But it was clear from Froome’s comments that he is most concerned by the storm engulfing Wiggins when he sacrificed his own Tour in 2012 to play the lead support role in his fellow Briton’s historic victory. Wiggins has insisted he needed a drug with a history of abuse to combat asthma and allergy problems, but Froome appeared to be less than satisfied with the explanation when cyclists have used triamcinolone to aid weight loss.
‘With regards to Wiggins’ TUEs, questions remain over his symptoms, the choice of treatment and the related performance benefits from that treatment,’ Froome told Cycling News.
‘I was surprised, it was the first that I had heard of them. I had seen Bradley Wiggins using his inhalers so I knew he had asthma, but I wasn’t aware of his allergies. Without knowing the details of his medical condition, it’s impossible to say if he was operating in a grey area.
‘It’s a great shame for the sport that we’re once again debating the validity of a Tour de France victory, and it has been a very challenging time for those involved.’
Wiggins, who along with Team Sky and British Cycling denies any wrongdoing, is unlikely to take kindly to Froome’s comments.
But Froome, like all the current Sky riders, knows the damage that has been done to a team that pride themselves on their clean image.
The riders remain oblivious as to what was in the package delivered by former British Cycling coach Simon Cope at the end of the 2011 Dauphine Libere that, at that stage, represented Wiggins’s finest victory on the professional road circuit. ‘I look forward to the conclusion of the investigation that is currently taking place and getting back to focusing on the season ahead,’ said Froome.
‘Mistakes have been made along the way, but Dave B (Brailsford) has created something incredibly special. I’m grateful to be in the position that I am, surrounded by an amazing team on and off the bike, with the best support structure in the pro peloton.’
UCI president Brian Cookson, who was British Cycling president until September 2013 and sat on the Team Sky board, suggested the Wiggins TUEs revealed by Russian hackers had sparked a fresh debate on the subject.
‘The substances issued appear to have been within the rules,’ he said. ‘But there is an argument to be had about whether TUEs for that kind of substance are valid.’