Shane Sutton, the former senior coaching and management figure at Team Sky and British Cycling, denied any role in doping when Team Sky asked all its staff about the issue back in 2012 but expressed general concern about Chris Froome.
A fitness to
practice hearing into former Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman by the General
Medical Council in Britain has heard details of what it is claimed was said at
the meeting between Sutton and the team.
After he denied
ever having any involvement in doping – a question Team Sky put to all its
staff – Sutton was asked if he had any concerns about anyone else in the team
or their past.
He answered Dave
Brailsford and Dr Steve Peter – team principal and medical lead respectively –
by making a reference to “Chris Froome going to Italy on a motorbike” and also
mentioning the rider’s relationship with Bobby Julich.
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Former US pro Julich
was a top TT rider in his day and Froome consulted him on the TT discipline.
Julich worked for Team Sky but left in 2012 after he admitted he had doped
during some of his career.
However, despite the details of Sutton’s responses being read into the record at the hearing, there was no suggestion whatever Froome had doped or that Sutton’s replies at the time included any allegation he doped.
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The report on Sutton's meeting with the team was supplied to the General Medical Council by Ineos Grenadiers, which was formerly Team Sky, at the request of the council. It was read into the record by Mary O'Rourke QC, who is representing Freeman at the hearing.
In 2012 Team Sky
interviewed staff and asked them if they were able to sign a declaration that
they had never had any involvement in doping.
Last week the fitness to practice hearing was told Freeman had disposed of a phone he had used to communicate with Shane Sutton. Previously it emerged Freeman lost one laptop, destroyed another to protect the privacy of medical records on it and was unable to access a third laptop.
Freeman has admitted he ordered a testosterone product
that was delivered to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2011.
However, he has strenuously and repeatedly denied the most serious allegation;
that he ordered the product for the purposes of doping athletes.
Freeman claims Sutton bullied him into ordering the
product so he could treat his, Sutton’s, erectile dysfunction; all of which
Sutton denies, including that he suffers from erectile problems.
The hearing continues.
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