BRITISH cycling great Bradley Wiggins said it was “so sad” after he and his former team were accused of manipulating drug rules before major races, including Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France victory. A report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee of the House of Commons published yesterday, accused Wiggins and other Team Sky riders of using the drug triamcinolone not for its recognized purpose as an asthma treatment, but because it helped them lose weight without compromising their power in the saddle. Russian computer hackers revealed three years ago that Wiggins had applied for therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), which allowed riders to have injections of otherwise banned drugs, permitting him to take the powerful corticosteroid. The DCMS report said Sky, which had made much of its commitment to be drug free in a sport long tainted by doping scandals, had broken its own in-house rules. Australian coach Sutton, who quit as the performance director of British Cycling in the run-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics following an unrelated sexism row, told the committee that “what Brad was doing was unethical but not against the rules.” And the committee said: “We believe this powerful corticosteroid was being used to prepare Bradley Wiggins, and possibly other riders supporting him, for the Tour de France.” (SD-Agencies) |