Bradley Wiggins, the first British rider to win the Tour de France, has called for another investigation into why Testogel sachets – a testosterone product – were delivered to Team Sky’s and British Cycling’s offices in Manchester in 2011.
Last week, after a General Medical Council hearing, former
Team Sky and British Cycling medic, Dr Richard Freeman, was found to have
ordered the gels knowing or believing they were to be used on a rider to boost
performance.
Freeman vehemently denied the charge and has done so again in recent days in the wake of the damaging verdict. He claimed he was bullied into ordering the gels to treat the erectile dysfunction of Shane Sutton, a senior coach with Team Sky and British Cycling.
Sutton denied this, saying Freeman’s story had changed so
often it couldn’t be trusted and also saying he does not even have erectile
dysfunction.
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And now Wiggins, on his podcast, has said while he does not believe the Testogel was for a rider, he believes more investigation is required to establish what happened and why the gels were ordered.
Wiggins said with about 80 riders and Team Sky covered by
the activities in the building the gels were delivered to, the verdict meant “it’s
just left with this assumption that it must have been for a rider”.
“I don’t know anyone in their right mind that would use
that for doping in that period; particularly as the amount of testing at that
time, the blood passport, in-house testing, out of competition (testing) if you
lived in the UK with UK Anti Doping,” he said, adding he tallied his own
testing in 2011 and counted 56 tests that year.
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“What needs to happen now, to alleviate this assumption
or this cloud that loves to be bandied around, that it must have been for a
rider…. not necessarily. It might have been for a staff member, it might be
something for a female athlete, it might be for someone from another sport. Who
knows?
“It seems odd that no one flagged it up. It seems bizarre
that an organisation funded by public money… I mean, what T-shirt did they have
on this day when it came into the building? Was it under Team Sky, is that
another barrel of shit that they’ve all got to deal with? Is it British
Cycling?
“The whole thing stinks to high heavens. And what is it, 10 years on now? It wants looking into further. Yes he’s (Dr Freeman) been found guilty, they’ve (the gels) come into the building, it falls on his head. Who else’s head does it fall on?
“But from here now, can we look into it a bit more? What
exactly happened? Someone must know. Otherwise, duty of care… my son’s going into
the British Cycling set-up at the moment; your kid’s in there and there’s this
sort of stuff going on: ‘oh, accidentally a load of testosterone gels have come
in, no one knows…’
“You jeopardising duty of care towards athletes, people’s
kids, husbands and wives. The people that are in there, in this great British
system we’ve got, which has won all these Olympic medals over the years, funded
by public money; that is not good enough.
“And there needs to be more of an explanation; who were they for, what the bloody hell were they for. I don’t think for one minute believe they were for any rider, at all. That wasn’t the type of system that was run. That wasn’t the remit, it just isn’t.
“Of course that leaves this cloud over it. I understand
that because it makes a bloody good story as well. But this one is a bit
different. Something else is going on and I don’t quite know what the hell’s
going on. But it needs a follow-up now.”
Wiggins said there should be another investigation to
establish what or who the gels were for, insisting several times that he did
not believe they were for a rider.
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