Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky, has said there is no evidence any rider ever sought Testogel or ever doped, despite the verdict against its former doctor, Richard Freeman, that he ordered the testosterone product knowing it was to be used to dope a rider.
The verdict was announced on Friday by the Medical
Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester and came after Dr Freeman
denied the allegation.
Dr Freeman worked for Team Sky and British Cycling for
over eight years to 2017 and had admitted 18 of the 22 charges against him at
the protracted General Medical Council hearing.
However, he vehemently denied four of the charges, which all related to the delivery of Testogel sachets to the offices of British Cycling and Team Sky in Manchester in 2011.
Despite the verdict, and the UK Anti Doping investigation
still underway into Dr Freeman, Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky, said there
was no evidence anyone doped or tried to.
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“The team fully supports the work of the GMC and it is
very clear from their report that Richard Freeman fell short of the ethical
standards required of him as a doctor and acted dishonestly,” the Ineos
Grenadiers statement said.
“However the team does not believe that any athlete ever
used or sought to use testogel or any other performance enhancing substance.
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“No evidence has been provided that this ever happened or
that there has been any wrongdoing by any athlete at any point.
“We will continue to give our full support and co-operation to UKAD, as we have done throughout this process, as they continue to investigate his conduct. We will not be making any further comment.”
Meanwhile, a former member of the Digital, Culture, Media
and Sport select committee in Britain, which previously held hearings into
doping allegations around Team Sky and British Cycling, said he believed some
people should step aside for now pending an inquiry.
Clive Efford, a Labour Party MP, told The Telegraph that “until
this is cleared up, all those involved shouldn’t be anywhere near the sport”.
“Clearly, there are questions to be answered and people
should be suspended while this is properly investigated,” he said.
“Dave Brailsford gave reassurances about how clean his
teams were and unless he was in full control of what was going on, he couldn’t
make those assurances.
“We have to question, if he didn’t know, why didn’t he?
And if it was possible for this to happen, how could he have given assurances
that his team was clean?”
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