David Kenworthy, the outgoing UK anti-doping chairman, has added to the pressure on Sir Dave Brailsford by labelling evidence given to parliament over the delivery of a package to Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2011 as “extraordinary” and “very disappointing”.
In an interview with the BBC, Kenworthy said: “People could remember a package that was delivered to France, they can remember who asked for it, they can remember the route it took, who delivered it, the times it arrived. The select committee has got expense sheets and travel documents.
“So everybody can remember this from five years ago, but no one can remember what was in the package. That strikes me as being extraordinary. It is very disappointing.”
Kenworthy also addressed Brailsford’s claim that the package contained Fluimicil, adding “he didn’t say: ‘I know that’s what it was’. He said: ‘I have been told that’s what it was’.”
“There’s still no definite answer from anyone who was involved. I still don’t know what was in there; I’m no nearer finding out than you are,” Kenworthy added.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Damian Collins MP, the acting chairman of the House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport, supported Kenworthy’s criticisms.
“What it confirms is there appears to be no paper trail at all to determine what was in that package,” Collins said. “That’s not been provided by Team Sky or by British Cycling. Ukad, all they have is the word of the team doctor, Dr [Richard] Freeman, to say what was in it. There’s no evidence to back that up.
“The question that poses is how can you know you’re operating at the standards you expect of your team and the ethics of policing the use of drugs that you want them to be if you’ve got no evidence of what the doctors are administering to cyclists.”
“The whole story doesn’t look good and it’s a story that has evolved over several months now,” Collins added.
“The team doctor should keep medical records of the drugs he’s administering to cyclists in and out of competition and I can only imagine those documents, if they do exist – and they should exist – have not been shared with UK anti-doping authorities. And if they were this could clear up this one way or another.
Brailsford, speaking at a parliamentary hearing into doping in December, had said that the package, delivered to Wiggins by British Cycling assistant Simon Cope during the 2011 Dauphiné Libéré race, contained Fluimucil.
Brailsford added that Team Sky doctor Freeman had told him the contents of the package, which has been at the centre of a long-running Ukad investigation. Documentation has yet to be provided to Ukad to support Brailsford’s assertion that the package contained Fluimucil.
On Friday, the triple Tour de France winner and Team Sky rider Chris Froome refused to give Brailsford a firm endorsement during a 25-minute press conference.
Froome, who confirmed that he has previously taken Fluimicil, both in a nebuliser and by injection before the UCI banned the practice in 2011, was asked if Brailsford retained sufficient credibility to defend his Sky riders when tough questions are asked.
Froome replied: “That’s not for me to say.” When the question was put a second time, he answered: “You’d have to ask [Brailsford] that. I don’t know how he is going to respond.”
Team Sky have responded in a brief statement, saying: “As we have said from the start, we are confident that there has been no wrongdoing. We are continuing to co-operate fully with Ukad and we look forward to the conclusion of the investigation.”
