A combination of athletic prowess and personal eccentricity made him a beloved national figure but the latest allegations against him and Team Sky have at the very least tainted that legacyThe golden throne outside Hampton Court Palace. The Sun’s stick-on sideburns. The ringing of a 23-ton bell to open the Olympics. The quirky victory speech on the Champs-Elysées. The crescendo of noise that greeted the smashing of the world hour record in the London velodrome. A kaleidoscope of memories. How far in the past they seem now, and how faded the images, as a beleaguered Bradley Wiggins seeks to preserve his reputation.The incessant attacks, including the particularly massive one provoked by yesterday’s release of the parliamentary report into doping in...
Dave Brailsford’s lofty ideals when setting up Team Sky have been exposed under the pressure of top-level competitionTo judge from Dave Brailsford’s words the other day it seems he still doesn’t get it. He was talking in a press conference about the business of the abnormally high salbutamol level in a urine sample taken from Chris Froome in Spain last September but not revealed – by this newspaper and Le Monde – until three months later. While re-emphasising his belief that Froome had done nothing wrong, he added that the finding should not have been made public.But when Brailsford set up Team Sky eight years ago it was on the basis of absolute honesty and openness. We are going to...
Eradicating exemptions seems fairer than allowing athletes to use artificial means of lifting themselves back up to their natural level of performanceIn more optimistic times, the news that Dr Michele Ferrari’s appeal against a doping conviction was turned down by an Italian court this week would have felt like a superfluous postscript to a story whose denouement had been revealed years ago. Instead, the decision to uphold the verdict on the man who introduced Lance Armstrong to EPO seems like a footnote to a story that has simply moved on.For a while after Armstrong’s fall it looked as though enough good work was being done to permit the provisional victory of hope over ingrained scepticism when it came to the...
Little sign of the hoped-for spirit of openness can been seen following British Cycling’s plunge into notorietyThere was always a more than even chance that the affair nicknamed Jiffy bag-gate would never arrive at a definitive ending. The investigating UK Anti-Doping agency has limited powers, the events in question hark back five years and more into the past, the allegations were vague – that triamcinolone had been in a certain bag delivered at a certain time to be administered to Bradley Wiggins, who has stated via Instagram that the bag “was never delivered to me” – and the key witness, Dr Richard Freeman, appeared unwilling to engage fully with the inquiry.As a result, Wednesday’s statement from Ukad confirming that no...
UK Anti-Doping Agency’s long and expensive investigation has reached what feels an unsatisfactory conclusion for all involved, including Bradley WigginsA 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...