The owner of chemicals company Ineos, which is now backing the cycling team formerly known as Team Sky, says he would withdraw his support if doping was ever found in the squad.
Jim Ratcliffe made his comments in an interview with BBC
sports editor Dan Roan on the day Team Ineos was officially launched.
"We did our due diligence. I have absolutely no
interest in cheating or drugs," Ratcliffe said.
“The day that any of that enters our world we'll be
exiting that world.
“What's the point of winning a race if you cheat? There's
no point in that really,” Jim Ratcliffe added.
“I believe that if you have the best athletes in the
world and the best training regimes, there's no need for any of those
enhancements."
He also felt cycling was much cleaner now that before and
that was the reason he was coming into the sport.
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"We did all our homework and have got procedures and
people we are comfortable with," he said of taking Team Sky into its new Team
Ineos incarnation.
While Team Sky was mired in controversy for much of its
last years, none of its riders was ever caught doping except Jonathan Tiernan
Locke, whose offence predated his time with the squad.
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Chris Froome returned an excessively high reading of
asthma drug salbutamol at the 2017 Vuelta, which he won. However after an
inquiry he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
A UK parliamentary inquiry concluded Bradley Wiggins availed of medicines under therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) to secure a performance gain.
However, Wiggins insisted he used the medicines to treat allergies and not for performance gain.
His taking the medicines also complied with all the rules of the sport and was done under an approved TUE.
An inquiry was also conducted into the contents of a
jiffy bag delivered to Team Sky in France in 2011.
It was claimed the bag delivered to the team at Critérium
du Dauphiné contained the corticosteroid triamcinolone.
But no evidence whatever was ever found to show there was
anything untoward in the bag.
However, Team Sky was unable to furnish records proving
what was in the bag; something that damaged the team greatly.
A general medical council hearing into the delivery of
testosterone patches in 2011 to the Team Sky and Team GB shared based in
Manchester was to take place late last year.
However, Dr Richard Freeman was unable to attend the
planned hearings, which remain outstanding.
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