Wiggins: I want it out in the open

In 2016, the so-called ‘Fancy Bears’ hackers released information showing that Wiggins received permission to use the banned drug triamcinolone before his biggest races in 2011, 2012 and 2013, including the 2012 Tour which he won.

Those revelations were followed by a 14-month UK Anti-Doping Agency investigation into whether a package delivered to Team Sky at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2011 - a race Wiggins won - contained the same drug, with UKAD forced to close the case earlier this year because of missing medical records.

Speaking on ITV4’s coverage of the Tour de France, Wiggins said: “There are things that have come to light with this whole thing that we’ve found out since that are quite scary actually and it’s very sinister. We’re still not at the bottom of it, we’re finding new stuff out daily to do with the package that never was and all this stuff and it’s quite frightening actually.

“We’re still working on it, still trying to piece it all together. Not a legal team, just other people coming to us now and saying, ‘You know this has happened, don’t you?’

“We can debate TUEs and that’s one thing, but where it went after that with everything else - there is a film to be made there.

“God yeah, I’d love it to all come out. Once it’s all stacked up and pieced together, it’s quite shocking.

“There are a few people bricking it at the moment, I know that for sure. I hope it comes out of its own accord but it is in certain people’s interest for it not to come out and get buried.

“We’ll see. It’s all gone very quiet at the moment.”

Wiggins’ TUEs did not break any rules, but raised ethical questions and led some to suggest that details of all TUEs issued should be published in the interests of transparency. Wiggins dismissed that idea in typically colourful fashion.

“I don’t think it would help publishing riders’ TUEs as some people will have embarrassing things they don’t want out there,” he said. “What if a rider has an affair and gets a sexually-transmitted disease and there is medication for that on his records?”

Last week, Wiggins suggested Sky would have a “real problem” on their hands if Geraint Thomas took the yellow jersey ahead of four-time Tour winner Chris Froome - a scenario which came to pass as Thomas won back-to-back stages in the Alps to lead the Tour by one minute and 39 seconds from Froome.

It created an intriguing comparison with the 2012 Tour when Wiggins and Froome had an uneasy relationship, with Froome appearing to attack Wiggins on stage 11 before sitting up, perhaps trying to show he was the stronger rider despite being in a domestique role.

Six years on, Wiggins said he did not think Froome was trying to take the yellow jersey off him.

“I don’t think Chris was trying to attack me to drop me and win the Tour in 2012,” he said. “He was thinking he needed to secure his second place and he wasn’t as confident in his time trialling as he is now. There is so much stress and pressure in this race that you’re on edge. I didn’t realise some of that until after.”