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British fan passes vial of pills found during Paris-Roubaix to UK Anti-Doping

Mike Brampton says pills fell from rider’s pocket during crash – and he has pictures showing who it was

A British cycling fan who retrieved a vial of pills from the roadside during Paris-Roubaix will today pass it to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) for analysis – and says he has pictures that show it falling from the jersey pocket of an unnamed rider as he crashed, reports Telegraph.co.uk.

The fan who found the vial, Mike Brampton, is managing director of a veterinary equipment supplier based in West Sussex, Thames Medical, which tweeted a picture of the vial from its account on Tuesday.

Yesterday, he received a reply from UCI president Brian Cookson.

The crash happened around halfway through the race, won by Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Niki Terpstra, although Mr Brampton isn’t saying exactly where it happened, nor the identity of the rider involved. He told Telegraph.co.uk he would give that information to UKAD, however.

“Basically the crash happened and then they all got up and the soigneur pushed the rider away,” he explained. “I’d already spotted the vial, as had others. It was actually pointed out to the soigneur who sort of shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘nothing to do with me’.

“I’d rather not say who was involved or where exactly it happened but it was roughly halfway through the race between cobbled sections, not on a cobbled section itself.

“It will absolutely be possible to pinpoint who the vial belongs to. I have 34 in-sequence photographs from about 15ft away, pin sharp. In one of them you can actually see the vial falling from the rider’s pocket.

"Though there is one shot missing which is of me picking up the vial – that is because the voiture balai [broom wagon] was about to run me over and obscured the shot.”

As Telegraph.co.uk points out, there is nothing to suggest that the vial contains anything illegal, although cycling’s history of doping does mean that such a discovery is likely to lead people to think the worst.

Mr Brampton himself is hopeful that there will be an innocent explanation. “Whatever it is, it’s official,” he said. “There was a torn bar code on it.

“I’ve spoken to UKAD twice today and they are taking it very seriously. They are sending someone down tomorrow so they can bag it, seal it and have it tested. But I’m sure it’s nothing sinister. Well, I’d like to think not.

"Some people have been critical of my decision to make this public but my genuine hope, as I’m sure it is of most cycling fans, is that it turns out to be absolutely nothing and the powder is something like magnesium or beta-Alanine or something else not on the banned list,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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38 comments

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Andy G | 9 years ago
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What's to say the vial hasn't been tampered with after it was picked up?

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mooseman | 9 years ago
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+1 for the Flying Scot's comment. Seems like a daft way to handle the 'issue', if indeed that's what it is.

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Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
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It's interesting the way people have turned this around on the chap. He seems to have tried to do the right thing. He spoke to soigneur who ignored him and then got in touch with British Cycling/UKAD. I don't know when he got involved with the press but it's not un-news worthy.

It will be interesting to find out what he has got there. But it is likely to be no more than pain killers.

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JonnyWright | 9 years ago
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I'm sure this will probably get more news column inches than the actual Paris-Roubaix got..

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Colin Peyresourde replied to JonnyWright | 9 years ago
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Where? I don't think so. In the grand scheme of things we have a knife and no victim. If it proves to be something interesting once analysis is done then we have a murder.

This is not going to be steroids or EPO - the time frame for the effectiveness of these drugs is days not hours.

It could be an amphetamine, but the most useful of these is caffeine and it's not illegal.

Most likely it's ibuprofen or paracetamol.

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zagatosam replied to jstreetley | 9 years ago
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This guy's the managing director of a veterinary equipment supplier. Not a medic/vet/nurse/technical expert. His company deal with equipment not meds. So why should he know better? And what member of the general public is going to go out on the basis of his so called publicity-hunting tweet and buy a pair of Olsen-Hegars from him as a result? (They're needle holders by the way......i'm a vet and wouldn't necessarily switch to using Thames Medical as a result of this tweet)

I don't know if Mr. Brampton did the right thing or the wrong thing but he did the best thing he could under the circumstances. If these are dodgy pills and UKAD confirm that and the rider is correctly identified then i hope they'd do a specific test to look for that substance or its masking agents. Might come to nothing but it would give any drug-taking rider something to think about. I, like everyone here, hope it's not a banned substance but anything which can be done to catch the cheats should be done.

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mrmo | 9 years ago
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IF these are banned drugs, i would suggest the rider can't be punished for THIS case, but i wouldn't be surprised that someone might be on the receiving end of a lot of attention from the vampires for a while.

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Him Up North | 9 years ago
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Analysis has found these to be nothing more than M&Ms and Tic Tacs...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/no-banned-drugs-in-paris-roubaix-vial-fo...

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