NOW WIGGINS COMES UNDER FIRE FROM HIS OWN TEAM SKY COACH
SIR BRADLEY WIGGIns came under fire from his own coach and mentor last night as the team sky drugs storm descended into an astonishing war of words. shane sutton was once a father figure to Wiggins as well as deputy to team sky chief sir Dave Brailsford, but last night he called for the 2012 tour de France winner and then team doctor Richard Freeman to ‘tell the truth’ about the cyclist’s use of the controversial corticosteroid triamcinolone.
And only 24 hours after Wiggins had denied being treated by Freeman on the team bus on the day the now infamous Jiffy bag was delivered in the French Alps, sutton contradicted the five-times Olympic champion by saying that he still believed he was. Indeed, that was what sutton told a parliamentary hearing.
sutton spoke to sky sports news in Mallorca earlier yesterday, and team sky officials were apparently keen to see their former employee give the interview. By last night, however, it amounted to yet more damage to the credibility of Wiggins, Brailsford and a professional cycling team already in crisis.
In the explosive parliamentary report published on Monday, sutton had asserted that Wiggins’ use of triamcinolone during his cycling career was ‘unethical’. His statement sent shockwaves through team sky, who perhaps hoped he might even retract the remark. Wiggins has said he was ‘hurt’ by the comment.
If sutton was asked about the ethics issue last night, no reference was made to it in the interview broadcast by the channel owned by the same company as team sky. they did, however, run some candid responses from sutton, who expressed his frustration that he and Brailsford had been forced to face a grilling from MPs in December 2016.
‘I have no axe to grind with Brad,’ said sutton, who resigned from his position as British Cycling’s technical director in April 2016 amid accusations of bullying and discrimination but is now working with China’s national cycling team.
‘My axe to grind here is that Brad and the doc (Freeman) had a chance to come forward and they never came forward.
‘they had a chance to defend Dave Brailsford and it should have been them in front of the select committee and not myself and Dave. that grieves me a little bit but not to the point where I wouldn’t sit down with Brad and have a drink. there’s no problem there whatsoever. I watched him on tV last night and he looked very stressed but I’m calling for him and the doctor to come forward now and tell the truth.’
the DCMs select committee accused Wiggins of using triamcinolone with a medical exemption certificate ahead of the 2012 tour for performance benefits rather than a medical need. In essence MPs called Wiggins and team sky cheats.
But their inquiry, and the investigation by uK Anti-Doping that occurred in tandem, focused on Sportsmail’s revelations about a medical package delivered for
He was treated on the bus, I thought that was public knowledge
Wiggins at the conclusion of the 2011 Criterium Du Dauphine.
The allegation was that the package contained triamcinolone, and Sutton told MPs that the medication contained in the package was administered to Wiggins on the team bus. Had it been triamcinolone, it would have been an anti-doping rule violation.
Wiggins not only denies cheating and using triamcinolone for anything other than treatment for asthma and allergy problems, he also denies being treated with anything by Freeman on the bus.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday night Wiggins said: ‘We travelled six hours later on a training camp to Sestriere at high altitude and I was treated that night when the doctor came with Fluimucil with an nebuliser. In Sestriere, out of competition, not on the bus. Because we are still tidying up — I was doing podium, I was doing press, doing dope control. I had just won the race.’
Last night, however, Sutton said: ‘I understand that he was treated on the bus and I thought that was public knowledge. This goes back to 12 months ago and whenever I was interviewed by parliament. That’s the statement I made and that’s what the doctor told me.
‘So once again I would call for the doctor and Brad to come forward in front of you and answer these questions that you’re asking me because they’re really not for me.’
Freeman refused to appear before MPs, citing ill-health, and did not appear before a disciplinary hearing at British Cycling over his failure to keep proper medical records — including what was in the Jiffy bag — preferring instead to resign from his position last year.
But Sky Sports News reported last night that they had spoken to him and said Freeman had echoed Wiggins’ version of events. Freeman is now at the centre of a General Medical Council investigation that Sportsmail understands has uncovered new evidence about a delivery of testosterone patches to the headquarters of Team Sky and British Cycling.
Asked about Wiggins’ use of triamcinolone, Sutton said: ‘I can’t actually say I know a lot about Brad’s use of it, whether in competition or out of competition. I’m told by the doc we’ve got a TUE for this particular amount, etc, etc. I keep saying to everybody that they’d have to go and sit down with Brad and the doc and ask them if you were sanctioned to use it by the UCI in the lead-up to major tours and everything else because obviously he is a sufferer.
‘When you’ve actually been on a col and you’ve seen him suffer the way I’ve seen him suffer and you’ve seen him gasping for breath at the end of that particular effort, which everyone will say, “Oh, you always get out of breath making an effort”, but to see what he was going through…
‘I can’t answer all the questions you’ve just asked me on how often he used it or when he did. That’s something that only Brad and the doc can tell us.’