Video: Former Team Sky rider says team covered-up his self-injecting
He rode for Team Sky in 2013 and 2014. He would ride for An Post-Chainreaction in 2015 and is currently with NFTO. Team Sky has denied his allegations.
Former Team Sky rider Josh Edmondson has said he secretly injected vitamins when riding for the team.
While the substances were not banned he says he breached the UCI’s no-needle policy.
He also said he took Tramadol and suffered withdrawal symptoms and depression when he stopped taking it.
He has claimed when his secret injecting was unmasked in the team the staff covered it up by not reporting him.
Edmondson rode for An Post-Chainreaction in 2015 and is now riding for NFTO in the UK.
The claims come at a terrible time for Team Sky. It remains under pressure over the contents of a bag delivered to the team in 2011 in France.
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It has also been badly damaged by Bradley Wiggins availing of controversial TUEs just before target Grand Tours.
Team Sky has denied Edmondson's allegation of cover-up. It said as far as it was concerned Edmondson had bought the equipment to inject but had never used it.
They say when the equipment was found in a hotel room they did not report the find because they were concerned about the young rider’s mental health at the time.
Edmondson, who was a Team Sky rider in 2013 and 2014, has made his claim in an interview with BBC’s sports editor Dan Roan.
Exclusive - @BBCNews at 6 TV report on the ex-Team Sky rider confessing to self-injecting vitamins & his painkiller-induced depression pic.twitter.com/paTWLcbJH1
— Dan Roan (@danroan) March 16, 2017
However, he says he never took banned substances at any point in his career.
There is also no suggestion whatever that the injecting continued during his time with An Post-Chainreaction or as an NFTO rider.
And like his secret injecting, he said his taking Tramadol happened outside the team structure at Team Sky.
He said the team did not consent to, or even know about, what he was doing until caught.
The 24-year-old says he bought injecting kit and legal victims in Italy and brought them back to Nice.
He was concerned when injecting that air bubbles in the medication may cause heart attack.
He says he first took Tramadol on the 2013 Tour of Britain, thought the team says it did not get it from anyone on Team Sky.
He added he once stayed in his house for a two-month period and blamed depression that he believes was at least partly caused by Tramadol.
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Top, winning stage 3 at the Tour de Azerbaijan for An Post-Chainreaction in 2015. And riding the Tour of Poland for Team Sky in 2014 - the race where his secret injecting would come to light.
Edmondson said he regarded injecting legal vitamins as an alternative to doping.
"In 2014 I was under a lot of pressure, not just from the team but from myself," said Edmondson.
"You want to renew your contract for one thing, and for me the bigger thing was not letting anyone down.
"This team had given me a chance by signing me and a bigger chance by letting me go to a Grand Tour (the Vuelta).
"I think it was just before the Tour of Austria, I went to Italy to buy the vitamins that I was going to later inject. I brought them all back to Nice.
"I bought butterfly clips, the syringes, the carnitine (supplement), folic acid, 'TAD' (a supplement), damiana compositum, and (vitamin) B12.
"And I'd just inject that two or three times a week maybe. Especially when I wanted to lose weight, I'd inject the carnitine more often because it was very effective."
He added he was caught when a team mate on the Tour of Poland found his injecting kit, took photos of it and reported it to team management.
Edmondson said he knew he had been caught when the injecting kit was taken out of a hiding place and placed on top of a chest of drawers.
Team Sky's then head of medicine, Dr Steve Peters, was the person who took the allegation to him.
Dr Peters told the BBC the rider assured him he had not used the injecting kit.
Edmondson's state of mind key for Team Sky
And given his worrying state of mind, the pressure he was under, his age and how upset he was, Dr Peters said a decision was taken to put Edmondson’s welfare first over reporting the matter.
He was fearful the rider would be pushed over the edge if the matter was reported.
"We could have reported it. We could have made a different decision,” Dr Peters said reflecting.
“We'll never know in hindsight. I suppose if I'm looking at safety issues I did think there was a really big risk this lad would be pushed over the edge. I stand by my decision.
"I think I'd definitely have told them if I thought this young man was trying to cheat, but I don't think he was doing that. I think it was a panic reaction.
“He is making very poor decisions because he is not well, and therefore we need to treat him first of all and then get to the bottom of it.
“But actually to put him through some kind of investigation or disciplinary at that point could've been very serious and damaged this lad's health.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't have reported him. We had to make a judgement call which was difficult.”
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