A 14-month investigation. Thirty‑seven witness interviews. A significant hit on the UK Anti‑Doping Agency budget. Yet still we are no closer to knowing whether the package delivered to Sir Bradley Wiggins at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011 contained a legal decongestant or a banned drug. Or to hearing from a key witness, Dr Richard Freeman, whose illness seems to have provoked a nine-month silence worthy of a monk.
But we can be sure of this: few parties come out well from the Ukad investigation, which was closed on Wednesday. Not Team Sky or British Cycling, whose response to the initial claims the five‑times Olympic champion had been administered with the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone in competition, was confusing and unclear. And certainly not Freeman, whose lack of basic medical record keeping had the fortunate consequence of Ukad dropping its case. All parties, including Wiggins, have been left in an uneasy limbo, not damned or cleared. Yet.
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