'Nothing dodgy' – British Cycling coach on mystery medical package he delivered to Team Sky doctor

Simon Cope has said that there was nothing “dodgy” in the medical package he delivered to Team Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné – although he also admitted that he didn’t know what it contained.

The British Cycling employee, who is now the manager of Team Wiggins, flew from Manchester to Geneva on June 12, 2011, at the request of Team Sky, and handed a 'Jiffy bag envelope' to the team's doctor, Richard Freeman.

The delivery is now the subject of a UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) investigation, but Cope told Cycling News that as far as he is concerned, it was just a mundane logistical task and the press were “digging at nothing.”

"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 that British Cycling are going to put something dodgy or illegal for them to take through customs. It's just 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?”

Cope said he also delivered spare clothes on that occasion.

As for why he was running errands for Team Sky, he said that while he was the manager of the British women's team and the women's under-23 academy coach at the time, he often attended professional men’s races and had been hoping to get a role as a sports director at Team Sky.

"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 Liège-Bastogne-Liège are they?"

Cope said that year he had run Team Sky training camps and worked as second sports director at several races. He also spent a month in Mallorca with Team Sky riders including Sir Bradley Wiggins and took then Sky rider Alex Dowsett to the Chrono des Nations.

“I was doing a lot of floating.”

UCI president Brian Cookson has also broken his silence over the controversy surrounding Bradley Wiggins’ therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs). He emphasised that as far as he could tell no rules were broken and appeared cautious about the prospect of the current system being overhauled.

"It’s clear, as far as I can see, that no rules have been broken here. If the rules have been followed and applied, that’s the end of the matter, in effect. If we’re going to have a debate about whether we should have different rules, then that’s a valid debate and maybe that’s something we can do over a longer period of time.

"But to do that, we have to do it with the support of the international agency that’s appointed to do that, WADA. And you can bet your life that if we go above and beyond in contravention of the WADA code, we would be taken to CAS straight away and we would lose."

Cookson was head of British Cycling when Team Sky was formed. Speaking about the close links between the two, he said:

"In my time as British Cycling president, we specifically formed it in that way, because we wanted a level of involvement and ownership in the ethics and integrity, and custom and practice of what went on in the management of the team. That changed a bit over time and now it’s completely separate.

"I think the two grew apart a little bit but for quite a number of years, the performance director of British Cycling was the team principal of Team Sky and other staff shared roles as well. Eventually Team Sky chose to separate. The sponsor wanted that, I guess, and these things evolve and emerge. But the basic ethos of the reason for forming Team Sky as a partner of British Cycling was to develop riders, and to protect them on issues of doping, integrity, health and so on.

"I hope that ethos has continued. I’d be surprised and disappointed if it hasn’t, but let’s let UK Anti-Doping do their investigation and find out whatever they can. If they come and ask me to contribute, I’d be very happy to contribute, and I’m sure that everyone in British Cycling would be as well."