Former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton agrees that Bradley Wiggins did not cheat, but he has called on the cyclist and the team’s former doctor to “tell the truth” about the controversial use of an anti-asthma drug.
Earlier this week Wiggins and Team Sky were accused in a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee report of “crossing an ethical line” by using triamcinolone to “enhance performance rather than for medical needs”.
The use of triamcinolone is not against doping rules if registered as a “therapeutic use exemption” (TUE). According to the DCMS report - called Combatting Doping in Sport - Team Sky’s application for the TUE to use triamcinolone didn’t violate any World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, but did cross the ethical line set out by Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford.
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In an interview with the BBC, Wiggins, an asthma sufferer, denied that he has ever cheated and that the use of triamcinolone was “completely under medical need”.
Criticising the parliamentary process, he told the BBC: “I would have had more rights if I had murdered someone than in this process. I am having to deal with the fallout. I am left in the middle trying to pick up the pieces. It is a malicious allegation made by an anonymous source… who are these sources? Come out. Go on record. This is serious stuff.”
Sutton, who was questioned by MPs last year about the subject, believes that Wiggins and Team Sky’s former doctor Richard Freeman should have come forward and explained the use of the drug in detail.
Sutton told Sky Sports: “I’ve no axe to grind with Brad. Brad and the doctor had the chance to come forward. They never came forward. They had a chance to defend Dave Brailsford and myself. It should have been them in front of the select committee - not myself and Dave.
“That aggrieved me a little bit but not to the point where I wouldn’t sit down with Brad and have a drink. There is no problem there whatsoever. As I said, I watched him on TV last night - he looked very stressed. I’m calling for him and the doctor to come forward now and tell the truth.”
Meanwhile, American cyclist Floyd Landis believes Wiggins should be stripped of his 2012 Tour de France victory.
Landis tested positive for testosterone and lost his 2006 Tour de France title and he believes Wiggins should receive the same fate. He also thinks that after the report’s revelations, Team Sky won’t compete at this year’s Tour de France.
He told Cyclingnews: “People shouldn’t downplay what has gone on. He [Wiggins] was using steroids. They kicked me out and they took my title for that. They better f****** take his.
“This has to be the end of the team. I’m 100% sure that there will not be a Sky team at the Tour de France this year. The little pieces add up and no one with more than two brain cells would add it all up and conclude that it was all just coincidental.”
