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news
Wiggins riding Arc de TriompheUpdated: British Cycling admits "serious failings" in record keeping as it emerges Team Sky ordered more Triamcinolone than was needed for Wiggins TUEs
MPs have heard that Team Sky ordered more of the drug that was administered to Sir Bradley Wiggins under a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) than was necessary to treat one person. The chief executive of UK Anti-Doping (Ukad), Nicole Sapstead, said that, “either there was an excessive amount of it for one person or quite a few people had a similar problem.” Meanwhile, British Cycling has admitted "serious failings" in its record keeping over the medical package delivered to Team Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine.
While the TUEs were secured in accordance with UCI rules, Wiggins has come in for criticism given that triamcinolone has previously been used by drugs cheats.
The rider himself says the drug was administered due to the unpredictable nature of his allergies and has argued that the injections may even have had detrimental effect on his performance.
Sapstead, giving evidence to the culture, media and sport select committee as part of its investigation into possible doping in sport, said that from records relating to Triamcinolone seen by her organisation, more of it was ordered than was needed for the TUEs administered to Sir Bradley Wiggins.
“I can't speculate about how it used and whether it is used in or out of competition,” the BBC reports her as saying. “My understanding is Triamcinolone is considered, not a serious product, but you don't treat conditions with it lightly.
"For that reason you would either think there was an excessive amount of it for one person or quite a few people had a similar problem. It's difficult because of a lack of records to see what duration these orders were lasting for."
Sapstead was also questioned about the circumstances surrounding the delivery of a jiffy bag to Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné.
She said that while Ukad had been told that the package contained the decongestant Fluimucil, Freeman did not have any documentation to prove this.
"We have received one account of what was in the package. That was that the package contained Fluimucil – not a prohibited substance and used for treatment of build-up of mucus, common in endurance sports.
"No one has any recognition of what was put in the package. We have asked for inventories and medical records to confirm that, but have not been able to ascertain that because there are no records."
Ukad established that Freeman kept medical records on a laptop.
"He was meant to, according to Team Sky policy and a policy that other doctors followed, upload the medical records onto a Dropbox that all doctors had access to.
"He did not do that for one reason or another. In 2014 we had been informed his laptop had been stolen while he was on holiday in Greece and that's why we've not been able to access those records."
Freeman himself had also been due to appear before the select committee, but pulled out of his planned evidence, saying he was too ill to attend.
The committee also heard from Simon Cope, the man who delivered the package, who told them he did not ask what was inside.
Asked whether he was “the most over-qualified delivery boy in history”, Cope said: “I could well be. But as I said earlier, I had a role in 2010 that was a full-time role, and I moved into a role which I could see, a few months down the line – which did happen – getting made redundant, as it wasn’t a full time job. So I was doing everything possible to keep people happy, to try and keep my job.”
He added: “Why would I ask if there was anything untoward. It’s a national governing body, why would I question the integrity of our governing body? I didn't ask."
British Cycling admits "serious failings" in record keeping
In a statement released on Wednesday evening in response to the select committee's latest evidence session, British Cycling said:
British Cycling welcomes the comments of UKAD chief executive Nicole Sapstead and would like to thank her and other UKAD staff for their work.
We have cooperated fully with UKAD throughout this process and we have encouraged others to do the same.
We acknowledge serious failings in our record keeping at the time. Our medicines management processes have been reviewed several times since 2011 and, through working with UKAD in recent months, we have identified further areas for improvement on this and in the provision of our wider medical services.
As has already been reported, Dr Richard Freeman is currently unwell. British Cycling owes a duty of care to him as his employer and therefore we will not make any further comment at this time.
The organisations' chair, Jonathan Browning, said: “Following the comments from UKAD chief executive Nicole Sapstead, we can announce the following measures to address clear failings in our processes highlighted in the investigation:
“First, an audit of our medical services provided to the Great Britain Cycling Team – we have taken the initial steps to enable the Care Quality Commission to examine the medical support we offer to our athletes and to identify areas of improvement.
“Second, a further review of the Great Britain Cycling Team’s medicines management policy – we will be seeking UKAD support in this.
“At British Cycling, we are wholly committed to clean sport and I want to assure athletes, fans and all other stakeholders that this commitment is unwavering.
“For anyone lucky enough to be working in any sport, it is not enough to just be clean, we must also be able to demonstrate that we are clean with transparent and accountable processes including good record-keeping and solid policies on all areas of medical support."
He added: “This is a fundamental responsibility, rooted in our duty to the athletes in our care as well as in our duty to the sport, and one which we take extremely seriously.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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47 comments
At best, Sky looks incompetent and non-compliant with reporting requirements. At worst, conveniently incompetent and non-compliant with reporting requirements. I didn't ever want to believe the stories about Armstrong either.
"...if the tip-off had said what was in the jiffy bag, that allegation would have been in the public by now..."
Unlikely, unless they are prepared go on the record. I think Lawton actually stated on Twitter that he had been told what was allegedly in the bag.
Journalists will always skirt around things unless they have something concrete to support a story: photos, documents, an attributable source. That's standard practice, otherwise you are just printing rumour and opening yourself up to libel action.
Copes's special trip was something that could be written about and questioned, but making allegations about the bag contents without supporting evidence is a step further.
Poor Wiggins, thought he was protesting his innocence too much before all this came out, the cyclist doth protest too much methinks.
To be fair to Armstrong, he didn't perform that great in GT's when first on the blood doping either. It was a change in mindset and a hardening of approach to training, racing and doping that made the breakthrough.
I'd actually love to go back, take away the EPO and see who'd have come out on top during the good old days.
As a random thought, Hamilton is noted for being a great doper, as his natural blood values were so... average. Others were not so talented at doping, as their values were naturally higher.
My thought is this... when people couldn't compete clean back in the 50% days, those people naturally at 50%, how did they cope? Did they cope?
As for drugs in cycling and other sports... it is purely Festina that has caused the discrepency between cycling and other professional sports.
its Pandora's box.. once opened, you can close the lid again.
Athletics is, in my opinion, hanging on by its fingertips... so far the breadth and varying types of doping being disovered is working in athletics favour. There is nothing focused enough to get everyones attention and make the general populous wake up and really get it. Then the Russia things comes along, and its both too great a story (more than athletics) and too isolated a story (one country) to be reflective of the sport. That sport is on borrowed time however.
Rugby and Tennis are utterly complicit in its players doping practices... its utterly rife. if you look at the percentage of british dopers serving tie right not, and then look at the volume of testing done within each sport, Rugby does not come off at all well.
Anyway, cycling is where it is today. For me, the frustration is when we look at whats going on at Sky and say its the same as Postal. Its not, it is very different to date. For me it certainly warrants further investigation, further digging, proper investigative journalism, but its not currently enough to be hanging anyone.
MMA (well, the UFC who may as well be MMA) has been cleaned up quite a bit lately. Look at the pre and post-USADA physiques and cardio to tell you what is what now. Guys have gone from 6% body fat but bulked cardio machines to 12% or more with a hell of a lot less get up and go.
As a spectacle the sport was better when it was do what you want like PRIDE FC in Japan. Basically everyone was on roids but they fights were generally awesome. Same with the earlier UFC stuff, the fights IMO were better when it was just a roiding free for all.
Time to watch the nat geo docu on doping again, wonder if they will do a new one with new perps in and have Columbo as the commentator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWpcBvR-B7Y
Follow the money, Soccer is bent, gambling, drugs etc. BUT the money involved is vast and is in no ones interest to clean up. So the solution, oh look cyclists are on drugs.
Divert attention, simple really.
I doubt you will find many sports that are clean, just levels of dirty really. I would say cycling is far from the worst.
The other issue, if you have a rule it will be pushed. Have Sky actually broken any sporting rules? Using tramadol may stink but it isn't illegal. TUE's will be abused unless they are banned. All sports sail as close to the wind as they can get away with, sometimes someone will overstep the mark.
Indeed.
Still doesn't take away from my point that JP doesn't seem to differentiate between normalised, blatant cheating on the football/cricket/rugby field and the type of cheating in cycling. Cheating is cheating, and when it is open and clear for all to see (and thus effectively condoned), somehow we don't appear have a problem with that.
Bloke cheats to win the Tour. "Bury him!"
Bloke dives in the penalty area and xFC wins the FA Cup. "Praise him!"
Screwed up values we live with, innit?
It's more than that though ColT. In football, rugby etc there is cheating; diving, conning the ref etc. Then there is Cheating.
According to a recent article, In Spain there were 0 tests in La Liga last year. Approximately 1/4 of top flight footballers in Britain are tested. The numbers are lower as you go down. You have incredible amounts of money, the best doctors you can buy, the best medicines you can buy and, very importantly, an organising body that will gain absolutely nothing from a doping positive. That's even if someone is stupid enough to get caught!
If a team was uncovered doping in football then sponsors would leave, tv money would go down, media coverage would be lesser, confidence would drop and attendances would suffer. If you're FIFA, the Premier League, UEFA whoever - who in their right mind is going to push the button on that?
Same for tennis and, to a lesser extent perhaps, athletics.
There are honours, cash, endorsements, faces on billboards, putting your face on charitable foundations, sporting legacies at stake here. It's my belief that you will never, ever see a proper doping case in football. Man City have been fined for whereabouts violations. Who cares? no-one. Saido Berahinho served a secret, apparently recreational, drugs ban recently. Tony Pulis was on the radio saying how great a club they are for keeping that quiet.
If anything slightly awkward comes up then you can divert media attention with the constant (sorry but there is ALWAYS something going on in Cycling) murmurs that Cycling is a dirty sport. Cycling will never shift that in my opinion.
What if JTL was telling the truth all along (I believe he was anyway because he's a local hero done good) and he was sacrificed by the SKY Program because his results threatened to expose what was actually going on?
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I still don't get why cycling is always held up as the pre-eminent sport of cheats. People cheat in all sports in a multitude of ways, but Joe Public seems to be particularly vexed about cycling for some reason.
This same Joe Public watches cheating on an industrial scale every weekend on football pitches across the land, but doesn't seem in the least perturbed. Dive for a penalty? No problem, sir. Feign injury to get an opponent sent off? Sure, why not? That's quite normal, guv'.
There's plenty of cash at stake for Mr Public's favourite team qualifying for Europe, so whatever it takes to win is perfectly okay, is it not? So, what is the fundamental difference? Why are cyclists somehow different to other professional sportsmen and women?
It fascinates and frustrates me in equal measure.
I can't think of another sport that's had such a widespread 'everyone's doing it' revelation resulting in several years being scratched from its biggest event. Now that might be more power to road cycling: at least it was tackled.
But at the same time, there's the spectrum of cheating: I can't think of another sport that competes there either. Drugs, blood transfusions and motorised, all proven.
You seriously can't think of another sport with the 'everyone's doing it' mentality? Boxing, swimming, rugby, MMA, weightlifting?
Not what I said - loads of sports are surely as drugged-up as cycling. I'm talking about the actual revelation in the public eye.
None, that I'm aware of, have had the perfect storm that road cycling had over about 10 years (Festina,Operacien Puerto, Landis and LA Confidentiel, USADA) , culminating in a scrubbing out of (7 or 8?) years of records from the sport's biggest event.
Doesn't mean others aren't dirty, and, as others have said, could possibly be 'better' at keeping a lid on it than cycling has been.
I think there are two issues at play. One is that cycling (and athletics) are almost solely feats of strength and endurance, which showcase those attributes. So Messi can go to his sketchy italian doctor in the middle of nowhere mid-season and no one cares. They want to see him dribble not run. Never mind that he needs to run to be able to dribble. Whereas what we see from Froome is sheer effort. If he was cheating at that, then what's the point?
But the second thing for me, is that cycling has a huge amount of fans that participate in the sport, and, crucially, do so mainly non-competitvely. I don't just mean not racing, but just a lot of the guys who you see even at races aren't really going for the win. So that base, which makes up a big chunk the fans of professional road racing, is particularly attuned to doping as an issue, and particularly appalled at people doing it. Whereas the really competitive types are more given to understand the everything goes mentality, and the average non-particpant just doesn't care. But that's just a theory.
I think there's something in that.
I'm on a couple of triathlon forums, many members do half-irons, ironman etc. They're like a concentrated version of cycling forum members - you get a higher proportion of active participants. So you've got loads of people 'just getting round' a pretty serious endurance event involving 3 sports: completing an ironman being a badge they're proud of.
There've been a few cheating stories on those forums over the years, I've been on - the most interesting have been the 'course cutting' cheats and detective work on pulling people up about split times! - and the ferocity and revulsion on show is pretty uniform.
Sorry, I still don't see anything in any way concrete here.
No one can prove what was in the jiffy bag... either way. That does not make that jiffy bag full of PED's... it means it could have been full of PED's, nothing more.
Use of legal drugs, cynical application of TUE's... all very much against the image of squeeky clean that Sky have pushed... but this is not US Postal version 2.0... yet.
So yes, I agree, their holier than thou image has gone... not that it got them anywhere anyway... and I can imagine that their administrative processes are getting an update, but this is not the end of the team or indeed Brailsford.
Lets keep pushing, if its there, it will come out... trying to make the current 'evidence' stick is only going to come up short.
Countering the earlier comment about the jiffy bag contents... if the tip-off had said what was in the jiffy bag, that allegation would have been in the public by now... somewhere a journalist would have put the question to Brailsford or similar along the lines of; 'some rumours are saying the jiffy bag actually contained xxx, do you have any thoughts on how those rumours came to be?'
i.e. the contents would have been publicised even if not in an offical capacity.
That all sounds very much like the defence circa 2008 regarding a certain Texan and his nay-sayers.
As you say Truth will out and the currently legal Performance Enhancing Substances that Sir Bradley took before all of his wins will innevitably go the way others before them like Meldonium for instance.
But yes not one rule was broken...well perhaps the GMC might have something to say about that.
As I watch the race on TV/YouTube, I find it impossible to not wonder as another rider makes a 500W effort up a 10℅ incline after 150 km of racing, 'What's he on?' I have no faith in any of them now.
I try not to be too disheartened though. It's still one of the most beautiful sports in the world. You can experience those roads and ride similar kit and feel amazing while doing it. Still an amazing thing to go and watch. For me some of the best days of my life (other than my kid etc etc and of course my mrs if she's reading) have been on a bike or on a Belgian/French roadside
I don't doubt there's clean riders either, probably even more clean riders than the 90's where you probably had Moncoutie, Bassons and Boardman. For me I suspend disbelief and watch the spectacle - unless it really stinks!
Of course there are clean riders which is why just about every pro race back to 1962 should be given the bloke who came last because sure as shit he was either clean or what ever he was on wasn't as good as everyone elses.
The problem is, even without drugs the elite are pretty superhuman and effectively freaks of nature. I guess most of it comes from just being 'born to do it' and actually finding that niche.
Bolt is probably dirty but even if they were all clean he'd probably still win, he's just got all the right things in all the right places. Same with footballers, probably all on some cardio-boosters of some sort but still have skills beyond the norm.
It's probably a bit depressing but the majority of us are nowhere near elite even if we get up to a high standard and into the top 1%. Damn my run-of-the-mill genetics!
Exactly and that exactly why even if everyone was clean Lance Armstrong would still have won all 7 titles
Or the other view that Armstrong benefited more from blood doping during the 50% limit rule as he had a naturally lower starting haematocrit level. Certainly before blood doping he never performed well in GTs - always hitting a problem in the 2nd or 3rd week.
I disagree with your first point. The right combo and timing can transform your also-ran into a world-beater. Eg. Ben Johnson on steroids: 9.75. Comes back clean, even with the long-lasting effects of historical steroid-use and its relevance in such an explosive event: 10.3 - would struggle to get a medal in the UK national champs. Granted, cycling might be more of a leveller here in something so endurance-based as a Grand Tour you might not get the extremes, but maybe you do...
For me, your second point also contradicts your first - it only becomes about talent, genetics and admiring the elite sportsmen, their coaches, their sporting endeavours, if you guarantee they're all on the same stuff. Otherwise you have to throw in how good their doctors or chemists are, which cocktail of PEDs they've selected, how good the masking agents are etc.
And how do you know that some of those footballers could even hack a career as a sportsman if they weren't on stuff that enhanced their recovery? Jonathan Woodgate - talented enough to get a move to Real Madrid, crocked enough to then fall apart at the seams. Might've been the next Beckenbauer if he'd been doped up...
And that's my main objection to doping - it muddies sports' water way too much.
I do what Graeme Obree does, I take things at face value.
Innocent until proven guilty. Just enjoy watching the sport.
Just to clarify, which rule are Sky accused of breaking here?
Awaiting the report - but seems a total muddle right now.
From a medical perspective their doctors are supposed to make and lodge observations when using unlicensed medicine (which Flumecil was in the UK). There was also a data breach (stolen laptop) that was not reported apparently in the way stolen medical data should be. In he hearing yesterday several GMC breaches were mentioned.
There was a TUE logged for one rider for Kenacort but the order was for significantly more than needed. Sky are accused of effectively being "a drug wholesaler...without a licence". On top of the Tramadol stuff (not mentioned yesterday afaik) questions are being about the medicines being ordered for these teams and the justification.
The rest just looks really bad. Blurred lines between BC and Sky. Poor admin work. Strange excuses. Making Cope a mule for whatever. I think the situation is a mess but I felt really bad for Cope, as bolshy and defensive as he was, he was really thrown to the lions there.
Every few years a successful team is found to be doing something. PDM, Gewiss, Festina, US Postal, Rabobank and now Sky. That's the sad thing for riders and associates at the team that they will be mentioned in the same breath by many people.
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