Pat McQuaid said Team Sky's claims of having such high ethical standards left it open to the charge of hypocrisy when set against the leaked TUEs of its riders.
Former UCI president Pat McQuaid has accused Team Sky of “hypocrisy” after availing of the therapeutic use exemption (TUE) system for riders in competition while claiming publicly its ethical stance would not allow it.
When the World Anti Doping Agency had its data hacked by a Russian group calling itself ‘Fancy Bears’ it emerged both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome had used TUEs to take drugs for medicinal purposes that were otherwise banned.
- Millar says drugs Wiggins took cause rapid weight loss, power gain
- David Walsh now critical of Team Sky over TUEs before key races
- Medical Opinion: Why details in pros’ leaked TUEs are worrying
- Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome TUE details leaked online
Froome’s TUEs were public knowledge before the information was leaked online and he has thus far escaped much, if any, reputational damage.
However, Wiggins has taken a battering, and with him Team Sky’s ethics.
Advertisement
Wiggins took triamcinolone acetonide, to treat hayfever, via intramuscular injection three times while riding for Team Sky; before the Tour de France in both 2011 and 2012 and before the Giro in 2013.
While be broke no rules and the substances were applied for and sanctioned via the appropriate channels, he had previously denied - in his book My Time - ever having injections apart from vaccines and dehydration drips.
Related News
And the timing of his injections, all just before the start of Grand Tours he was targeting, has also drawn comment especially since Team Sky said it would withdraw a rider from racing rather than use TUEs in the treatment of allergies.
McQuaid has told CyclingNews he believed the ethical claims of Team Sky set against the TUE details now made public left them open to the charge of hypocrisy.
On the wider issue, he said that during his time as UCI president he believed TUEs were being abused, though his comments related to pro cycling in general rather than Team Sky, Wiggins or Froome.
“I think that it’s been going on for years,” McQuaid said when asked about the abuse of corticoid steroids under TUEs in cycling generally.
“I tried to get corticoids banned completely. I was given the impression that they were being abused.”
He recalled speaking to then UCI scientific advisor and UCI doctor Mario Zorzoli on the issue around five years ago.
“He told me that at the classics there were riders who were looking to win or do well and were taking corticosteroids during that period on a TUE,” he said.
“He felt that it wasn’t a genuine TUE but that it was just to help them.”
Topics
