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Sir Dave Brailsford reveals the medicine contained in package for Sir Bradley Wiggins at 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné

Team Sky boss answers MPs' questions after British Cycling bosses declined to do so this morning...

Sir Dave Brailsford has revealed that the package delivered to Team Sky at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné and destined for Sir Bradley WIggins, who had just sealed overall victory at the race, contained the decongestant Fluimucil.

Also known as Acetylcysteine, neither word appears on the 2011 World Anti-Doping Prohibited List. Belonging to the mucolytic family of medicines, Fluimucil is used to treat excess build-up of mucus that blocks the airways.

Delivery of the package was first revealed by Mail Online in October, though today is the first time the contents have been revealed.

It was delivered to Team Sky's former doctor Richard Freeman by ex-British Cycling employee Simon Cope, now sports director at Team Wiggins.

Brailsford was giving evidence at the House of Commons to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which had summoned the Team Sky principal to appear before it as part of its inquiry into doping in sport.

Earlier today, British Cycling president Bob Howden and Dr George Gilbert, a member of the governing body's board and chair of its Ethics Commission, had repeatedly told MPs they were unable to answer questions about the package because it was the subject of an ongoing UK Anti-doping (UKAD) investigation.

Former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton, who appeared before the committee prior to Brailsford giving evidence, confirmed however that it did contain medicine.

Today’s session, chaired by the MP Damian Collins, began with Howden and Gilbert been grilled, but the stonewalled questions about the package delivered to Freeman.

They claimed they had been told to say nothing about by UK Anti-doping (UKAD), which is conducting its own investigation into the issue, but at the same time insisted they knew nothing of the contents.

John Nicholson MP noted their suggestion that Cope had told them it might have contained pedals or shoes.

He asked: “Would that not be odd, pedals being flown out to a doctor?” Gilbert replied that it would, but reiterated that he and Howden were unable to speak about the subject of UKAD’s investigation, and repeating that neither of them knew what was in it.

Sutton, at least, was aware it contained medicine, but he was unable to be more specific.

The Australian, whom Wiggins as described in the past as a father figure, was at the 2011 race. He said that while he had left after Cope delivered the package, it did contain medicine that Freeman administered to Wiggins.

The Australian seemed exasperated by continued questioning about why he was unaware of the contents of the package, saying: “I am astounded that you would suggest we have not done it by the book.”

But he confirmed that Freeman had asked him if he knew anyone coming from the UK to the area who could bring a package, and insisted it was a Team Sky matter and nothing to do with British Cycling.

At the end of his evidentiary session, he was asked if he wished to say anything about the Jess Varnish case which led to British Cycling finding him guilty of “inappropriate and discriminatory language” in October, although it has since transpired that only one of nine allegations against him was upheld.

“Apologise?” he said. “In 10 years I had not had one complaint against me until one athlete was dropped from the team.”

Sutton, who has said he plans to appeal, added: “She’s entitled to have her say and I can have my say but I’ll leave it up to the legal team.”

It was Brailsford who eventually confirmed what was in the package, adding that there “should be” a paper trail in relation to the delivery of the Fluimucil. Asked if anything else was in the package, he replied: “I hope not.”

He said he trusted the team’s doctors, but pointed out that patient confidentiality often meant he would be unaware of certain issues.

Brailsford insisted he had “confidence” in the team’s medical staff, adding, “the discretion of doctors is very good and they will share information on a need to know basis.”

He was also pressed on the team’s policy regarding the use of TUEs – three of which Wiggins received, before the 2011 and 2012 Tour de France and the 2013 Giro d’Italia to treat grass and pollen allergies.

In response, he underlined that “there has to be a medical need.”

Brailsford was also quizzed about the controversial former Rabobank doctor Geert Leinders whom Sky employed on a freelance basis until severing ties in October with the Belgian, now banned for life for doping-related activities.

“It wasn’t my greatest decision,” he acknowledged. “I hold my hands up. He went through our processes and once we found out he had a past we acted on it.”

In conclusion, Brailsford conceded: “There are lessons to be learned. I have handled this situation very badly.

“But,” he added, “we have reviewed all our policies and how we use TUEs in the future and how do we gain and provide transparency while protecting competitive advantage.

“We invite anybody to come and examine us and scrutinise us.”

Neither British Cycling nor Team Sky emerges from today’s session with credit, all the more so because it has been two months since allegations of the package were first reported and they had ample time to prepare for today’s hearing and to anticipate the type of questions that would be asked.

Now, both will be waiting the results of the investigation conducted by UKAD, which is due to report shortly.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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22 comments

Avatar
burtthebike | 7 years ago
0 likes

This is just a distraction story, while the media steadfastly refuse to cover the Chris Grayling story.

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Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
0 likes

Nadal had body builder guns at one point. Full natty brah. Some of the Youtube 'fitness'fake natties are less impressive than someone like Ronaldo. Hard work and spinach. 

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Must be Mad | 7 years ago
0 likes

Quote:

 Tennis is rife in my opinion too. Hides behind the "cycling is an endurance sport you can't dope for that in tennis"

With matches going on for 3, 4 even 5 hours... Tennis IS an endurance sport. And one where you need to recover quickly so you can compete again the next day and the day after etc...

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Alb | 7 years ago
0 likes

Cheating in plain sight

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Stumps replied to Alb | 7 years ago
3 likes

Alb wrote:

Cheating in plain sight

How ??????????????

They have had a drug delivered that isnt on any banned lists so how is that cheating or are you another of daddyelvis ilk that becuse they are a British team actully winning they must be cheating.........

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bigblue | 7 years ago
0 likes

There is the question of where to draw the line. Eating a bowl of pasta instead of six pints of beer and a bag of chips is performance-enhancing. Getting a good night's sleep is. So, probably having your own mattresses could well be. I understand the concerns, but it's up to the rules to codify what is allowed, and what isn't, isn't it ?

Here's your chance to insert morally wrong but uninhibited practices ! (in which case I say they should be illegal, but ... I wonder what, if anything, we can come up with).

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Nick T | 7 years ago
1 like

Haven't MPs got anything more important to be getting on with 

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Lungsofa74yearold | 7 years ago
0 likes

Question is whether there are any handy side effects which might aid performance like rapid recovery (a la testosterone) or exercise tolerance / oxygen carrying capacity of blood etc. bearing in mind Wiggo's dodgy TUE. If not, there's nothing in it.

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tonyleatham replied to Lungsofa74yearold | 7 years ago
2 likes

Lungsofa74yearold wrote:

Question is whether there are any handy side effects which might aid performance like rapid recovery (a la testosterone) or exercise tolerance / oxygen carrying capacity of blood etc. bearing in mind Wiggo's dodgy TUE. If not, there's nothing in it.

Let me connect some dots for you. It's not a banned substance, so it's pretty safe to assume it's not a PED

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Richard D | 7 years ago
1 like

Another risk with buying what you THINK is a known drug could easily be bulked out with something that is on the banned list.  A pro cyclist would have to be crackers to walk into a foreign pharmacy and buy something over the counter that he THINKS is okay to take.

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SNS1938 replied to Richard D | 7 years ago
0 likes

Richard D wrote:

Another risk with buying what you THINK is a known drug could easily be bulked out with something that is on the banned list.  A pro cyclist would have to be crackers to walk into a foreign pharmacy and buy something over the counter that he THINKS is okay to take.

Then why not just say that? If that's the reason, then surely they get a few packages a year, and could have just said ''At Sky, to ensure we have full traceability for all medications taken by our riders, we often ship Brittish sourced medication to the team when they are on the road''. Job done.

 

 

Avatar
tonyleatham replied to SNS1938 | 7 years ago
3 likes

SNS1938 wrote:

Richard D wrote:

Another risk with buying what you THINK is a known drug could easily be bulked out with something that is on the banned list.  A pro cyclist would have to be crackers to walk into a foreign pharmacy and buy something over the counter that he THINKS is okay to take.

Then why not just say that? If that's the reason, then surely they get a few packages a year, and could have just said ''At Sky, to ensure we have full traceability for all medications taken by our riders, we often ship Brittish sourced medication to the team when they are on the road''. Job done.

 

 

Actually, that is more or less what Brailsford said. One of the facets of this hearing is that there were a number of pompous ass MPs, all of whom wanted to get their ponderous faces on TV, and each one asked the same questions, the outcome being that the same questions were trotted out again and again and again. The media have tended to report just certain responses to these questions but several plausible (at least to me) reasons were given.

The tone of the questions was hectoring and the MPs distinctly tried to take the moral high ground. The witnesses were also effectively ambushed because they'd been told as recently as Friday by UKAD that they were not to discuss the contents of the parcel. But then UKAD told the committee chairman on Sunday that the witnesses should answer questions about it, but didn't bother to tell the witnesses this. So all the witnesses went in unprepared to answer detailed questions about the parcel. Howden said repeatedly (because he was asked repeatedly) that UKAD had prohibited them from running their own investigation and speaking to anyone about it.

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burtthebike | 7 years ago
1 like

The BBC spend five minutes covering this non-story on R4 news this evening, and another five on Zsa Zsa Gabor, but not a single mention of Grayling knocking off a cyclist.

They covered the Andrew Mitchell plebgate affair 24/7 for months.

But they aren't biased.

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Must be Mad | 7 years ago
0 likes

After all the smoke which had garthered over this, was kind of expecting something more daming to come out. 

Quote:

Sky/Wiggans have really brought this upon themselves.

team Sky invited this investigation - I guess they felt that if they simply said it was something inocent, they would not be believed

 

One hopes that UKAD has been doing a full investigation and  will provide a report in due course.

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Jharrison5 | 7 years ago
0 likes

I've only ever heard of acetylecysteine being used for paracetamol overdose and renal injury reduction.

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Butty | 7 years ago
0 likes

The Dauphine region may be a littel rural, but surely they have pharmacies in a nearby town that Brad could have nipped into?

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cqexbesd replied to Butty | 7 years ago
1 like

Butty wrote:

The Dauphine region may be a littel rural, but surely they have pharmacies in a nearby town that Brad could have nipped into?

I know nothing of these specific conditions but I can say that drugs in different parts of Europe are often different and if you don't want any surprises then you may wish to stick with a product you know - esp if you are running the risk of accidently ingesting a banned substance.

I recall being in a Swiss pharmacy and failing to find the equivalent of night nurse capsules but given some powder to drink instead. It seemed to work but I was surprised they didn't really seem to have the range of cold "remedies" found in some other countries - given I'm sure I had read somewhere that I could have even asked for EPO in pharmacies in Switzerland...

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mattsccm | 7 years ago
2 likes

Well, of course, as it wasn't anything naughty they were well within their rights to tell the press nothing at all. Bearing in mind that the press and the general public have no damn right to know.

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IanMunro replied to mattsccm | 7 years ago
1 like

mattsccm wrote:

Well, of course, as it wasn't anything naughty they were well within their rights to tell the press nothing at all. Bearing in mind that the press and the general public have no damn right to know.

Apart from the fact that were using BC to supply, which is a publicly funded body..

Having watched the whole comittee footage live, I haven't seen inncocent people look so shifty in a long time.

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SNS1938 | 7 years ago
0 likes

If it's this innocent, why on earth did they claim it was for Pooley, and then say it's for Wiggo and not say what it actually was. Sky/Wiggans have really brought this upon themselves. 

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Kadinkski | 7 years ago
0 likes

Well he's hardly going to say it was anything that's banned, is he?

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psling | 7 years ago
1 like

[conspiracy theory] Acetylcysteine - extracted from pickled red herring and when used post event can increase standing by three places[/conspiracy theory].

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