The former president of British Cycling, Tony Doyle, has criticised the independent review into allegations of sexism against Shane Sutton, suggesting “something’s not right” that the panel was set up by three women.
Sutton, the former British Cycling technical director, resigned in April after being suspended pending an investigation into allegations made against him by a number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including Jess Varnish and Darren Kenny.
The 59-year-old Australian strongly denies all the charges and in August faced five hours of questioning from an independent panel set up by Annemarie Phelps, the chair of British Rowing, the UK Sport chief executive, Liz Nicholl, and the British Cycling nonexecutive director Marian Lauder.
The panel nominated by Phelps, Nicholl and Lauder was made up of Stuart Lancaster, the former England rugby union coach, the lawyer John Mehrzad, the former hockey player Annie Panter and the artistic director of the Southbank Centre Jude Kelly.
During an interview with the presenter Clare McDonnell on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast Show on Friday, Doyle – a former rider who became the president of British Cycling in 1996 – appeared to suggest the review had been compromised.
“First of all we had the whole Shane Sutton debacle, who’s the technical director,” said Doyle, who had been discussing the latest allegations against Team Sky and Sir Bradley Wiggins.
“There was an independent review because he was allegedly said to have made sexist remarks. The independent review, Clare, was conducted by three women. You know … so something’s not right there.”
“OK. Well. Ummm,” McDonnell responded. “Other people may disagree with you on that one. If it’s independent, it’s independent, regardless of gender, but Tony Doyle, thank you for that.”
Among the allegations against Sutton are claims from the track cyclist Varnish that she was told to “go and have a baby” after her contract was not renewed. Sutton has also denied claims he referred to Paralympic cyclists as “wobblies” and “gimps”.
• This article was amended on 7 October to make clear that the panel was set up by three women but was not comprised of three women
