Dave Brailsford has been grilled by a parliamentary committee at a public hearing in the UK about the culture inside Team Sky.
Having refused to reveal its contents and created a huge amount of mistrust of Team Sky and reputational damage, an explanation for the jiffy bag delivered to the squad in France in 2011 has finally been offered.
Team principal Dave Brailsford has told a parliamentary committee in the UK that the bag contained the medicine Fluimucil; used for clearing mucus
The existence of a ‘jiffy bag’ containing a mystery medical product emerged in October when the Daily Mail reported it had been delivered to Dr Richard Freeman of Team Sky.
Shane Sutton has previously said the contents of the bag were for Bradley Wiggins.
When queries about the jiffy bag were put to it initially by the Daily Mail, Team Sky referred the matter on for UK Anti Doping to investigate.
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And Brailsford then conducted his own inquiry in an effort to find out what was in the bag, all the while refusing to disclose publicly what was in the bag, until today’s public hearing before MPs.
He told the Culture, Media and Sport committee he was not aware of the bag’s delivery to the team - at Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011 – at the time.
When asked if there was a record of what was in the bag or if he had simply been told by Dr Freeman that the bag contained Fluimucil, he replied the latter.
"Dr Freeman told me it was Fluimucil for a nebuliser," he said. "That was what was in the package. It was what Dr Freeman told me.
"I have third-party information. I can only relate what I was told. He told me it was Fluimucil," he said of the medic who handled the TUE applications that have damaged Wiggins very badly in recent months.
When asked today if there was anything else in the package, Brailsford said: "I hope not."
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Fluimucil can be used in a nebuliser to treat decongestion and is not on the banned list.
It can be brought over the counter in pharmacies, including in France, for about €8 though it was carried from the UK by British Cycling employee Simon Cope.
He was making the journey as part of his work and Brailsford today said when staff were travelling to meet other team personnel they could often be asked to bring requested items with them for the sake of convenience.
He added Cope did not travel specifically to France to deliver a package containing an over the counter medicine available there.
“If that was the sole purpose of someone flying out, it would be an extreme step," he said
"The facts of the matter are that Simon Cope was flying out anyway. It’s the easiest possible way; he’s got his own store in Manchester, he’s coming out already.
"It may be where the whole situation has been slightly misled... that the whole purpose of Simon Cope’s trip to the end of the Dauphine wasn’t to deliver a package. He was coming anyway.
"He was coming and he was asked to bring something from the doctor’s store."
The Daily Mail in October put it to Team Sky that a medical package had been delivered to it in France on the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011.
The team then passed the allegation to British Cycling and asked it to refer the matter to UK Anti Doping for it to investigate.
It means a probe into an allegation of doping was generated by queries from the Daily Mail.
The matter emerged just after the Fancy Bears Russian hacking team hacked into WADA’s database and released the TUE details of top sports stars across a variety of sports.
The published documents showed Wiggins availed of triamcinolone TUEs before the Tours in 2011 and 2012 and Giro in 2013; details that have damaged Wiggins long term though the TUEs were sanctioned and he broke no rules.
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