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Vaughters: Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France win “blemished” due to triamcinolone use

Manager who led Wiggins to 4th place at 2009 Tour accuses Brailsford of "gaming the system" through TUE use...

Sir Bradley Wiggins’ former team manager Jonathan Vaughters says the British rider’s 2012 Tour de France victory is “blemished” by his use of normally banned drugs under a therapeutic use exemption and that Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford must take the blame for “gaming the system.”

Vaughters managed Wiggins at Garmin-Slipstream in 2009, the year in which he finished a surprise fourth overall at the Tour de France. He would subsequently be elevated to third place overall after Lance Armstrong was disqualified for doping.

At the end of that season despite still being under contract, Wiggins would move to the new Team Sky as its marquee signing, something that still rankles with Vaughters, who described him as “the most gifted athlete I have ever worked with,” reports The Sunday Times.

The American, who is currently in the UK promoting his book One Way Ticket: Nine Lives on Two Wheels accused Brailsford, who was already working closely with Wiggins as performance director of British Cycling of “poisoning Brad’s mindset” ahead of the move.

“The situation with Brad was an absolute bully situation, with Dave and all those attorneys,” Vaughters said. “I don’t find that terribly forgivable.”

Following the Rio Olympics in 2016, where Wiggins won his fifth career Olympic gold medal, the Russia-based Fancy Bears hacking group revealed that the rider had been granted the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone under therapeutic use exemptions on three occasions, including before the 2012 Tour de France.

Wiggins and Team Sky have claimed that the drug was used to treat the rider’s hay fever, but with triamcinolone helping reduce weight while retaining power, it has been abused by those looking to gain an illegal advantage.

Vaughters described the use of the TUEs as “gaming the system, adding, “It’s a blemished victory and that’s painful; Brad was gifted enough to win a Tour de France straight up.

“It will always be questioned, ‘Could he have won the Tour that year if he was 1kg heavier? Or could he have lost that 1kg another way?’

“Brad’s level of natural talent is enormous, but valid questions now hang over him. I think the people advising him did him a disservice.”

As to where blame should lie, he said:

“One thing I am trying to drive home is that we in management are responsible for giving these athletes the correct message and helping them come to the correct decisions.”

The issue of the TUEs to Wiggins, as well as the contents of the Jiffy Bag delivered to former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman became the subject of a parliamentary enquiry as well as an investigation by UK Anti-doping which determined that there was insufficient evidence to establish that an anti-doping rule violation had been committed.

When asked if Brailsford, who remains team principal of what since last month has been Team Ineos, is a trustworthy figure to lead a team, Vaughters replied:

“Without doubt he learnt from the Wiggins decision. I doubt he would ever make that decision again.”

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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18 comments

Avatar
Bill H | 4 years ago
0 likes

Maybe we should be more concerned that an athlete suffering so badly that Sky broke their ‘no needles’ policy, started the race at all?

 

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peted76 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Vaughters is just out for headlines here, he's selling a book. 

This is a clear 'non-story' which just brings the trolls out from under their bridges. 

 

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maviczap replied to peted76 | 4 years ago
1 like
peted76 wrote:

Vaughters is just out for headlines here, he's selling a book. 

This is a clear 'non-story' which just brings the trolls out from under their bridges. 

 

And quite clearly hasn't got over the way Brad deserted him for Team Sky. He's a bitter ex manager.

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alansmurphy | 4 years ago
0 likes

There's some very angry keyboard warriors here, I wish they'd get Jeremy Kyle going again so you've all got somewhere to go back to...

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Jetmans Dad | 4 years ago
1 like

These days, I suffer mildly with hay fever ... usually consisting of a bit of a runny nose, sore eyes and a bit of wheezing on particularly bad days. 

20 years ago, my hay fever could be utterly debilitating, on one occasion having to be evaced from the side of Ingleborough becuause it was so bad I literally couldn't breathe and spent the afternoon in an oxygen mask. And I am not asthmatic, I can only imagine how that might have played out if I was. 

Pollen allergy manifests itself in different intesities for different people at different times, and writing of all pollen allergies as "a bit of hay fever" is the same as writing off migraines as "a bit of a headache".

Knowing that Wiggins is asthmatic and seeing what my allergy did to me half way up Ingleborough,  I don't have much of a problem with Sky obtaining a TUE for a drug to ensure that didn't happen to their lead rider halfway up a real mountain. 

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Jackson | 4 years ago
1 like

^
Is it unfair to everyone else who didn't show up at the start line charged up with steroids?

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scouser_andy | 4 years ago
0 likes

One thing that a great many people have failed to pick up on, is the Fancy Bear hacking group are linked to the GRU - Russia's intelligence service, formerly known as the KGB.

 

The KGB have previously been involved in Russian state-sponsord doping programmes, with the aim of showing that Russia is stronger than the West.

 

The hacking attempts to try and discredit western athletes by leaking their TUEs strongly  suggests that it fits the same motive; to show that Russia is stronger than the West. It fits with other messages that the Russian state excude, for example that Putin is a macho leader, much stronger and tougher than his Western equivilents.

 

This whole conversation is precisely what the Russian state would want, tarnishing the reputation of celebrated sports stars. And the method used was to illegally leak medical records.

 

Is the win tarnished? Of course it is. Is it unfair to Brad? Hell yes.

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Velovoyeur | 4 years ago
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Before Sky even won the Tour, I recall a presentation given by Dave Brailsford where he discussed athletic performance, using words such as trajectory etc, and the involvement of sports scientists. He pointed at an upward deviation  point on one of his graphs and said “ this is where Brad became compliant” meaning that he began to work with the ‘back up’ team. At the time, the word compliant seemed an odd description for a character like Brad Wiggins. Now, with hindsight, does compliant mean that this was the point where the Sky management convinced Wiggins that they had found a loophole whereby they could pursue performance without breaking the rules. Before then it always appeared that Wiggins would always compete within the rules. If he conceded (or was convinced?) that he could use a TUE to gain the beneficial side effects of a banned substance without any repercussion maybe he did become compliant. Don’t forget, marginal gains  can be found by lawyers in the rule book as much as by scientists in a lab. 

He won the Tour, didn’t break any rules and, despite the moral objections of many, will be able to keep his victory.

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kingleo | 4 years ago
2 likes

How many times does everybody have to be told, triamcinolone does not improve athletic performance. You can eat less to lose weight, simple.

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Jackson replied to kingleo | 4 years ago
0 likes

kingleo wrote:

How many times does everybody have to be told, triamcinolone does not improve athletic performance. You can eat less to lose weight, simple.

Who to believe - 'kingleo' off the internet or David Millar, Lance Armstrong, Jonathan Vaughters, WADA, USADA and the UCI?

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Judge dreadful replied to kingleo | 4 years ago
2 likes

kingleo wrote:

How many times does everybody have to be told, triamcinolone does not improve athletic performance. You can eat less to lose weight, simple.

 

you do know what a “banned” “PERFORMANCE ENHANCING drug” is, don’t you?

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Judge dreadful | 4 years ago
1 like

 triamcinolone is supposed to be used only under strict supervision ( usually in hospital) and really isn’t for ‘hayfever’. As stated, one ‘side effect’ is weight loss, without power loss, thus increasing power to weight ratios, without any extra effort. Just be done with it, and strip him of his title.

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captain_slog | 4 years ago
2 likes

Look at it this way.

You've got a headache. The rules allow you to take one paracetamol or two. One paracetamol may not cure your headache. Two paracetamol is 'bending the rules to the very limit'. You have to get rid of this headache. You take two paracetamol. They cure your headache. Would one have been enough? You'll never know.

Of course it's a little more complicated than that but ultimately all we're doing is delving back seven years into the past and saying, 'OK, with hindsight maybe the rules should have been different.'

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Rich_cb | 4 years ago
1 like

Fair comment from Vaughters.

Wiggins didn't dope but he bent the rules as far as they'd go.

In a lot of people's eyes, including mine, that's enough to blemish his tour win.

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to Rich_cb | 4 years ago
2 likes

Rich_cb wrote:

Fair comment from Vaughters. Wiggins didn't dope but he bent the rules as far as they'd go. In a lot of people's eyes, including mine, that's enough to blemish his tour win.

So within the rules and doing nothing that every other professional (and some amateurs) ave been doing since time immemorial?

Move along son unless you want to blemish every winnerand the runners up and those behind them too, in every event in every sport ever!

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Rich_cb replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 4 years ago
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BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

So within the rules and doing nothing that every other professional (and some amateurs) ave been doing since time immemorial?

Move along son unless you want to blemish every winnerand the runners up and those behind them too, in every event in every sport ever!

Every other professional was using corticosteroids prior to each grand tour they rode?

Didn't think so.

He bent the rules to be able to use a drug that was otherwise banned and classed as a performance enhancer.

He didn't break the rules and he's not about to be stripped of his win but there is no doubt his victory is blemished.

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Freddy56 | 4 years ago
5 likes

If someone is on twitter and nothing to do, could they please ask this mutton head how he can even open his mouth on doping having paid a wage to David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde – and david miller...or was it the fact that he was admittedly a doper himself.

 

shush

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Xena replied to Freddy56 | 4 years ago
1 like

If someone is on twitter and nothing to do, could they please ask this mutton head how he can even open his mouth on doping having paid a wage to David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde – and david miller...or was it the fact that he was admittedly a doper himself.

 

shush

No , don’t you shut down free speech. Not only is Wiggins a doper ,he was the worse / luckiest tour winner ever . Gifted to him by his team mates . Now sky had Dr Leinders on the books plus all their other staff connected with doping and  the mysterious package on the plane and all that testosterone posted to them , just a coincidence a ? then he had no trouble before sky riding with a team of busted dopers ,and then reacts like his world collapsed when Armstrong got caught doping.....seriously mate wtf up . 

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