The bad blood between Froome and Wiggins from the 2012 Tour de France is resurfacing and it's very bad news for Wiggins and Dave Brailsford (Photo: Sirotti)
Any hope that the controversy within Team Sky was easing has been firmly put to one side by Chris Froome’s new comments on Bradley Wiggins availing of TUEs during his time at the team.
Froome revealed while he has asked for answers on some of the revelations of recent months, he is still in the dark.
That includes the contents, still not known to him it seems, of a medical parcel or ‘jiffy bag’ delivered to the team on the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011.
That delivery is being investigated, after Team Sky asked UK Anti Doping to carry out an inquiry when The Daily Mail put questions about the bag to the team in recent months.
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“I am completely in the dark on that,” Froome said in an interview in The Times newspaper today.
“I have asked the question. Hopefully we will find out at the end of the investigation.
“Those are questions for Brad to answer about what happened back then. In terms of who did what at the time, I still don’t know all the answers myself."
The comments, especially that Wiggins still has questions to answer, not only puts Wiggins under pressure but also Dave Brailsford's stewardship of the team.
For the first time since the team launched, Brailsford future has become uncertain as it has emerged he was one of only a small number of people aware Wiggins had availed for corticosteroid injections under TUE before key goals.
Wiggins took triamcinolone acetonide, to treat hay fever, under TUE via intramuscular injection.
He took the substances, under TUEs sanctioned by the relevant authorities and without breaking any rules, before the Tours de France of 2011 and 2012; both of which he went into as favourite.
He was regarded among a group of favourites in 2011 but crashed out and went into the 2012 edition very hotly tipped to win outright and succeeding in that goal.
He also took the TUEs before the 2013 Giro but abandoned that race.
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Judging by his comments in The Times, Froome is not minded to sidestep questions on the issue.
Indeed, he could have won the Tour in 2012 himself, attacking and riding away from Wiggins on one mountain stage before waiting for him.
That attack caused considerable bad blood, with their wives even making comments on social media in the aftermath.
Froome’s wife revealed months later that bonuses due to him arising from Wiggins’ win still had not been paid.
And with Froome now the star - with three Tour wins under his belt and more to come as Wiggins is drifting out of the sport - Froome’s clear willingness to comment fully and openly about the TUE controversy spells very bad news for Wiggins and Brailsford.
“People ask me, ‘Do I think it’s tarnished his image?’ I certainly think it’s raised a few questions, that’s for sure,” Froome told The Times.
“A lot of people have said it’s taken the shine off his performances back in 2012,” he added of the Tour Wiggins won but he could have probably taken himself.
However, he said based on his knowledge of Team Sky and his time there he regarded it as “completely above board” and “clean”, adding he had “laid all my cards on the table” over the TUEs he had availed of.
Details of his TUEs, along with those of Wiggins, were leaked by the Fancy Bears hacking team in September after it had hacked WADA’s database.
Details of Froome’s TUEs were already known and he emerged with no reputational damage.
But Wiggins was forced to protest his innocence, even though he broke no rules, because prominent riders said the substances he took resulted in weight loss and power gain.
Froome said Team Sky had worked hard in recent years to show transparency and had been getting a much warmer reception, especially from fans in France where the riders had endured abuse from the roadside in the past.
“I’m not expecting any difficulty going forward. Because nothing I’ve done is in question. I don’t think people are questioning me.”
Asked if Brailsford defending Wiggins availing of the TUEs at the times of the season he had, just before Grand Tours, Froome believed Team Sky was moving on and the was now in a “completely different place”.
“It’s really unfortunate. I don’t think it’s fair that this casts a shadow on that and the work that everyone is doing now," he said.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know. Until those questions are answered, how can we say what actually happened?”
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