Shane Sutton’s eagerly awaited testimony at the Dr Richard Freeman medical tribunal was delayed by hours of legal argument behind closed doors on Monday.
Sutton, who was formerly the head coach at British Cycling and Team Sky, is expected to give evidence on Tuesday to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, which is assessing Freeman’s suitability to continue to practise medicine.
Freeman, who worked for British Cycling and Team Sky between 2009 and 2017, has already accepted 18 of 22 charges against him, including that he ordered 30 sachets of the banned substance Testogel to be sent to the Manchester velodrome in 2011 and then lied to UK Anti-Doping about his attempts to cover it up.
Freeman denies a key claim that he placed the order knowing it was for an unnamed cyclist to cheat by microdosing testosterone. Instead his legal team say it was secured for Sutton, who bullied him into ordering the drug in order to treat his erectile dysfunction.
Simon Jackson, QC for the General Medical Council which has brought the charges against Freeman, said Sutton will strenuously deny either suffering from the condition, or that he had ever heard of Testogel before the reporting of this case.
Freeman’s lawyer, Mary O’Rourke QC, has said she wants to speak to Sutton about a secret affidavit she claims he gave to the Daily Mail which she claimed was “totally inconsistent” with evidence Sutton had given to a parliament inquiry into doping in sport.
O’Rourke has also claimed the affidavit is held in the newspaper’s managing editor’s safe as “an insurance policy against any potential claims for defamation by Bradley Wiggins, Freeman or Dave Brailsford” and that it contained “a number of lies”.
The tribunal continues on Tuesday.
