UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) have concluded their investigation into the package delivered to Team Sky during the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné and have said that no anti-doping charges will be brought in relation to the jiffy bag and have said that this will remain the case unless new evidence were to come to light.
In a statement from UKAD, they said that the “investigation was particularly challenging in light of a lack of contemporaneous medical records.”
On 23 September 2016, UKAD started an investigation following information they had received that a possible anti-doping rule violation may have been committed by Team Sky at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June 2011.
The possible anti-doping rule violation in question concerned the alleged contents of a package that was delivered to Dr Richard Freeman in France.
Information was received by UKAD that that package contained a substance called triamcinolone. Triamcinolone is a glucocorticoid that is prohibited in-competition when administered in certain ways.
Throughout the course of its investigation UKAD interviewed 37 individuals, including current and former employees of British Cycling and Team Sky (riders, medical professionals and other staff), and been provided with and reviewed a voluminous amount of documentation.
In the statement from UKAD, they outlined the following conclusions:
– At some point during the Critérium du Dauphiné, a request was made by Dr Freeman (one of Team Sky’s doctors at that time) for a package to be delivered to him.
– Shane Sutton arranged for Simon Cope (then a coach with British Cycling) to pick up that package and to bring it over to France.
– Mr Cope said that the package was left for him at the British Cycling offices and left on a desk sealed in a Jiffy bag. There was a post-it note on the package that said “To Simon, for Dr Richard Freeman”.
– Mr Cope travelled to Manchester to pick up that package and then, at some later point, he travelled to Gatwick on 11 June. Then he took a flight out to Geneva hired a car and took it to the end stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on 12 June and passed the sealed Jiffy bag over to Dr Freeman.
Dr Freeman stated that the package contained Fluimucil, which is not a prohibited substance under applicable anti-doping rules. Bradley Wiggins’ recollection was that he was treated with Fluimucil on the evening of 12 June 2011 and he said he did not know what was in the package.
Due to the lack of contemporaneous evidence, UKAD has been unable to definitively confirm the contents of the package. The significant likelihood is that it is now impossible to do so.
