Simon Cope, now managing Team Wiggins, has spoken out about bringing a medical package to Team Sky in France back in 2011 when he worked for British Cycling.
A British Cycling coach who took a so-called “suspect package” to Team Sky in France in 2011 says he does not know what was in it but insisted it was for a team doctor and had nothing to do with Bradley Wiggins.
The Daily Mail last week 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 has been generated by queries from the Daily Mail.
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Now the man who took the package to France, British Cycling coach Simon Cope, has said he simply cannot understand why the matter has attracted such close media scrutiny.
He also told cyclingnews.com he could not understand why Wiggins has been brought into the story.
Cope, who now manages Team Wiggins, said the package was brought the package was brought to Dr Richard Freeman at his request.
Cope worked for British Cycling but also worked with Team Sky as part of that job and said there was nothing unusual about bringing items or kit to other people involved in the federation and/or trade team.
"I don't have a clue what was in there,” he said of what was in the ‘jiffy bag’ that has been branded as “suspect” by the media.
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“It wasn't something unusual either. If people were going somewhere they'd just say 'can you take this?'
“There's no way that British Cycling are going to put something dodgy or illegal for them to take through customs. It's just not going to happen. It's just madness.
“You have to go through two sets of customs. Why are you going to take the risk?”
He also said the placing of Wiggins at the centre of some of the coverage saddened him. He could not understand why the press, as he saw it, was focussed on damaging Wiggins who had broken no rules and had done so much for the development of British Cycling.
"It was nothing to do with Brad," he said of the “jiffy bag” he took to France for Dr Richard Freeman.
Dr Freeman was the medic within Team Sky who applied for Wiggins’s triamcinolone TUEs before the Tours in 2011 and 2012 and Giro in 2013.
Cope was working for British Cycling at the time and between 2009 and 2011 was women’s manager and U23 manager.
However, he said working for Team Sky was part of that job with British Cycling and that he would “float” between the two linked entities.
"I think that (the media) is digging for something that's not actually there,” he said.
"I just think that it's very sad that they're trying to bring down a guy,” he added of Wiggins.
“(He) has put this sport on the map in this country, bigger than ever. It's sad, it's just sad. For no wrongdoing. I just don't understand it. I don't understand what they're trying to do."
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