Wiggins: "Jiffy bag full truth will emerge and some people are bricking it"

ITV4 comments by Bradley Wiggins : He says he is still working on the truth about the infamous jiffy bag. Some people wanted the truth buried and they were now "bricking it". But Wiggins wanted the full facts revealed (Photo: Gian Mattia D'Alberto)

Bradley Wiggins has told ITV4 he is still “working away” on establishing the full truth around a jiffy delivered to Team Sky in France in 2011.

He said while some people, who he did not name, did not want the truth to come out; he believed it would.

And he said some people were “bricking it”, by which he means shitting bricks.

Wiggins was speaking on ITV4 where he was a guest this morning on its Tour de France commentary team.

He was asked about the jiffy bag, which was delivered to the team on the final day of the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné that Bradley Wiggins won.

Almost two years ago the Daily Mail broke a story about a jiffy bag containing a medical product being delivered to the team.

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Since then Team Sky has insisted there was nothing more than an over the counter decongestant in the bag; for Wiggins.

But it was unable to furnish records to prove this and has been very badly damaged as a result.

However, there is no evidence whatever that any banned or controlled substance was in the bag.

Wiggins was asked if Team Sky could have handled the case better. And he mentioned better record keeping, before launching into an intriguing response.

“But 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,” he said on ITV4 of the jiffy bag  episode.

“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 talk 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."

The jiffy bag was one of the issues investigated by a UK parliamentary committee. It concluded Team Sky used TUEs for performance gain.

Bradley Wiggins used corticosteroids under TUEs, within the rules, to treat asthma.

Wiggins denies it was for performance gain, saying the medicines were for genuine allergies and asthma. He spoke about it on the ITV4 Tour de France coverage.

"They did not ask me to speak, I wish they had. We asked if I could see Damian Collins, but he didn't come back to us," Wiggins said of the committee and its chairman.

"They asked me five questions at the 11th hour on the Friday before the report came out on the Monday.

“I answered those five questions, none of which were about things in the report like that nine times or any of that rubbish.

"And they didn't even publish any of my answers. So I wasn't even given the opportunity, which served them right.

"From what I heard, they had five people give evidence and all these five people said the same thing and none of that was actually published in the report.

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"The report was fabricated stuff. And it seems that they used parliamentary privilege to get it through legally.

"If I'd murdered someone and was on trial, all that unsubstantiated evidence couldn't be used - it would be lack of evidence, thrown out.

"But you use parliamentary privilege and you can produce a report, try and ruin someone and there you go."

He was also asked on ITV4 if the TUE system should be abolished.

TUEs - therapeutic use exemptions - essentially allow riders to use banned or controlled substances under a doctor’s cert confirming they need to do so for a genuine illness or ailment.

"I don't think it is possible to do away with TUEs,” Bradley Wiggins told ITV4. “You appease certain individuals on Twitter and in the press.

"(But) people have genuine medical problems. Alex Dowsett, for example, has hemophilia and needs medication.

"Just to say we won't have any TUEs to appease certain people is not going to work. And it does athletes an injustice.

"People say, 'If you're sick you shouldn't be racing'. But you want to push on, you're paid to race.

"It's become a bit of a mess and a bit facetious in places - 'If you're asthmatic how can you be an elite athlete?'.

“Well it's a genuine thing exercise-induced asthma. It makes a mockery of people's problems.

"I don't think it would help publishing riders' TUEs as some people will have embarrassing things they don't want out there.

“What if a rider has an affair and gets a sexually-transmitted disease and there is medication for that on his records?"

Bradley Wiggins was also asked on ITV4 whether the rivalry between him and Chris Froome at the 2012 Tour de France was similar to Froome and Geraint Thomas at present.

“In 2012, I was the team leader and had a free passage through the first weekend and was in position G is in now - a two-minute lead about with 10 days to go.

"Chris had the back luck in the first week. And Geraint has had the straight passage; through his own doing, he's not put a foot wrong.

"They'll have a plan. Geraint will want to win the race. But he'll have the uncertainty.

“It's easy for him to say he's had a great Tour and whatever happens now is a bonus. In some ways that will give him freedom to take it day by day and see what happens.

"The pressure is on Chris. He wants to win the Giro-Tour double and a fifth Tour title. They'll know how Chris will hold up. The uncertainty is over how Geraint will.

“It potentially could be awkward for Team Sky. But at the same time you could see it as a massive advantage, with two cards to play.

Bradley Wiggins on ITV4: Climbs to come won't suit Thomas

"Geraint has a decent gap and the way he's been riding he should have enough to get through to the finish.

"If they play it right one of them should win the Tour de France

"They keep saying Chris Froome is the leader. But the further it goes into the race; Geraint Thomas will be thinking 'I can win this'.

"But there is a long way to go. And he doesn't know how his body will hold up in the last week.

“The Pyrenees are harder than the Alps, which are more suited to Geraint's riding style. I think they will play it right and one of them will win."