Team Sky, British Cycling inquiry may be widened; Tramadol on agenda
Jonathan Tiernan Locke, in yellow, made claims about Tramadol in the Team GB camp. The painkiller, though not banned, may now be examined as part of the inquiry into British Cycling and Team Sky.
Having heard evidence last week that badly damaged the credibility of Team Sky and British Cycling, a parliamentary committee in the UK has said it may widen its inquiries.
The House of Commons culture, media and sport committee has already been examining the delivery of a jiffy bag to Team Sky in France in 2011 said to contain a decongestant.
And it has also been probing the use of corticosteroid triamcinolone, taken by Bradley Wiggins under sanctioned therapeutic use exemptions.
The head of UK Anti Doping Nicole Sapstead last week told the inquiry there was evidence that the quantities of the substance bought was far in excess what would be taken by one rider.
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And now the chair of the parliamentary committee said he wanted to reflect on the evidence heard last week. Damian Collins MP said the use of painkiller Tramadol, which is not banned, may also be looked at.
“There are a number of lines of inquiry that remain open and Tramadol is one of them,” he told journalist William Fotheringham of The Guardian.
“Given the amount of evidence we had last week we want to take stock and see if there are further questions.
“We did ask Dave Brailsford about this and his answer was the same as with triamcinolone, that it was only (used) in cases of medical need.”
Former Team Sky and Team GB rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who has served a doping ban and been let go by the WorldTour team, has said when he rode the World Championships in 2012 Tramadol was offered around.
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Some key figures in the Team GB camp have disputed his claims. And though Tramadol is not banned, it is seen as controversial and Team Sky has said they do not currently use it.
Michael Barry and Tramadol at Team Sky
Another of their former riders, Michael Barry, recently spoke about his time at Team Sky and the use of medicines, though he did not believe doping was going on in the team.
The now retired 41-year-old Canadian raced for US Postal from 2002 to 2006 and says when he left he stopped doping. He would ride for Team Sky between 2010 and 2012.
He said in a recent newspaper interview he was concerned at the use of Tramadol when with Team Sky. He was also worried about the team’s use of sleeping pills and said he had raised this.
He also said he raised the idea of keeping a record of all the medicines ingested by riders at races so it could be passed on to the doctor working on the next events.
Those comments are important because the apparent lack of records around the jiffy bag taken from the UK to France to the team in 2011 is a major issue for its credibility at present.
“I asked if one doctor would ever give the pill [Tramadol] to a patient under similar circumstances in an office setting. He said no,” writes Barry in his new book, some extracts of which were published by the Telegraph.
“I asked was he concerned about what would happen if a rider crashed and it was found he had a drug in his body which normally came with a warning that it should not be consumed while operating a vehicle. He was silent."
He also got no response, he said, when he inquired whether insurance would cover a rider who had crashed with the drug in his system.
He added of the now contentious issue of record keeping: “I suggested that the team should maintain an inventory of the drugs given out at each race and pass it along to the doctor at the next race. To my knowledge, that was never done.”
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