Nicolas Roche, the Team Sky rider, has said the decision to seek a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for Sir Bradley Wiggins to use an otherwise banned drug was ethically wrong and that the system is open to abuse.
Roche, who is poised to join BMC Racing in 2017, argued it is too easy to be granted a TUE under the current rules, as the fallout over revelations concerning Wiggins continues.
Team Sky and Wiggins have been under pressure after his TUEs became public knowledge, leaving the first British winner of the Tour de France open to accusations he had behaved unethically by injecting the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone in 2011, 2012 and 2013, before his most important race of those seasons.
The use of the drug did not break any anti-doping rules and Wiggins and Sir David Brailsford, the British Cycling performance director until April 2014, have denied any wrongdoing. They insist the TUEs were medically necessary to deal with a pollen allergy that aggravates Wiggins’ asthma condition.
However, allegations of further wrongdoing have meant UK Anti-Doping has expanded its inquiry into British cycling after reports Team Sky and Wiggins are being investigated over the contents of a medical package. Team Sky have strongly denied those claims and reiterated their “100% commitment” to clean competition.
Roche, who was part of the Team Sky contingent that rode to fourth place in the team time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Doha on Sunday, believes stronger rules regarding TUEs need to be put into place and revealed he had not sought one despite falling sick three times.
“Like I said already on my Twitter a few weeks ago, when Wada was hacked the first time and before the Wiggins story, there is a major problem with TUEs,” the Irish rider told cyclingnews.com. “There is a problem with the actual system. Again, you can do whatever you want against Wiggins but unfortunately, as far as ethically it’s wrong, he is within the rules. It is wrong that these rules are like that. That’s where the main problem is.
“It’s a problem not just in cycling, but in all sport. There was something like 6,000 TUEs this year. To be honest, this year I was sick three times and I never needed a TUE, so there is a real problem on the easiness of getting TUEs and how athletes can abuse them.
“I think if you work on that then you have a solution. But the problem is much more than Wiggins, it’s the whole system that needs to be revised.”
Roche said the furore had not affected Team Sky in Doha. “It’s related to 2011, when I think two-thirds of us here today were not even on the team. It’s something we have more info on from reading the media than anything else. We learn about it on Twitter and the internet. That’s how much we know about it.
“You just get the info at the same time as everybody else,” he added.
Roche’s comments came as Graham McWilliam, the deputy head of Sky News and the chairman of Team Sky board, threw his support behind the team.
“Keep your feet firmly on the ground and stay focused on what’s important,” he wrote on Twitter. “For Team Sky that’s racing and winning, the right way. That’s what we’ve done from that start and that’s what we’ll continue to do in future. I can assure you of Sky’s full and continued support. There is no equivocation on our part. We trust you, we believe in you and we remain as excited about this sport as ever.”
