Reputation in tatters, says Wiggins probe

Damian Collins was speaking after UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) boss Nicole Sapstead updated the panel of MPs on her agency’s five-month investigation into allegations of wrongdoing at British Cycling and Team Sky.

Sapstead explained UKAD still did not know what was in a package hand-delivered to Sir Bradley Wiggins’ (pictured) doctor Richard Freeman at the end of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine, a week-long race in France won by Wiggins.

She said UKAD has spent 1,000 man hours, conducting 34 interviews, trying to find out if that package contained legal decongestant Fluimucil, as Freeman claims, or banned corticosteroid Kenalog, as a tip-off in September alleges.

UKAD could not “ascertain” the package’s contents because British Cycling has no record of Fluimucil, an unlicensed drug at the time, being ordered by any of its staff. Freeman has no record of what he gave Wiggins during the race because he failed to follow team policy by sharing his notes with colleagues and his laptop was then stolen while on holiday in 2014.

Freeman was meant to appear before the panel, too, but pulled out on Tuesday.