The drug that Team Sky couriered from Manchester to France to be administered to Bradley Wiggins during 2011 edition of Criterium du Dauphine had previously been bought by the team at a Swiss pharmacy only three hours’ drive away, The Times reports.
In a response to written questions from the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Team Sky confirmed it had previously bought Fluimucil at the Pharmacie de la Plaine in Yverdon, Switzerland in the same 3ml, ten percent concentration that Dr. Richard Freeman said he gave to Wiggins.
Wiggins had the first of three Therapeutic Use Exemption certificates (TUEs) to take the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone to treat a pollen allergy the next month. However, the medical records for this time were lost when Dr. Freeman’s laptop was apparently stolen. He had failed to adhere to team policy to back-up records online.
“It is important to emphasise again that we would only ever allow triamcinolone to be provided as a legitimate and justified medical treatment in accordance with the applicable anti-doping rules,” the team said in a statement last week.
Winners of four of the last five Tours de France, Team Sky have been under scrutiny since October when it was revealed UKAD was looking into a claim former star rider Bradley Wiggins was injected with triamcinolone, a powerful corticosteroid, at the end of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine race.
Thanks to the Fancy Bears computer hackers, it emerged last September that Wiggins was given permission for jabs of the otherwise-banned drug before his three biggest races in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The now-retired rider, who has denied any wrongdoing, did not have permission to use it at the Dauphine, though.
