Tour de France

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/780714696651440128[/ame]

[Alex]

Something that i remember well is Wiggins getting off his bike during the TDF with a face like thunder because he was angry at the insinuations being made about him.

All seems a bit odd now that he so vehemently defended himself at the time.

While they might not have broken any laws, played within the rules, it makes me wonder whether the asking and getting permission was just a cover for more regular use.

So did Lance Armstrong though.

Not saying Wiggins has cheated like he did mind.

[dom9]

Wiggins TUEs ‘not performance-enhancing’, claims Team Sky’s Brailsford.

Sir Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal, breaking his silence on the controversial use of medical exemptions to allow Sir Bradley Wiggins to legally inject powerful corticosteroids, has trenchantly defended their conduct but promised more transparency in future.

Twenty-four hours after Wiggins delivered a much criticised defence of the three occasions on which he was injected with triamcinolone before his major races of 2011, 2012 and 2013, Brailsford insisted he had no regrets. “With hindsight we’ve looked at the recommendations, worked within the rules and applied the rules. That is what we did. We did do that. And we wouldn’t have done that if we didn’t think it was what was appropriate,” he told the Guardian.

But Brailsford, who played a pivotal role in British Cycling’s run of Olympic success before launching Team Sky, said that he accepted there was a need for more transparency in how the therapeutic use exemption system worked.

“Our intention is to change our policy and, with rider consent, to be public about TUEs. If someone did race with a TUE everybody would know beforehand,” he said.

“Or, if you needed a TUE, you wouldn’t race. I think we’re always learning lessons but, looking forward, the future is one where we need to drive towards greater transparency and making sure our policies are appropriate.”

Brailsford was insistent that the team did the right thing in applying for TUEs for Wiggins in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and that he had full trust in the process put in place by the UCI. “I knew he had been to the specialist. We don’t sit down every week and discuss every rider’s medical records. That’s not what happens. There is an ongoing discussion. He comes back from the specialist, says we’ve been recommended this and we need to apply for a TUE and that’s done,” Brailsford said.

“It’s easy to stand here with hindsight and make those claims. Rather than live in the world as it is now I go back to the time and say: ‘What information did I have to hand at the time? What did I believe in and trust from a TUE process? Did I make the right decision at the time? Would I have done the same now at the same point in time with the same information? I think the answer would have been yes.”

Asked specifically about who knew about the TUEs, among 13 acquired by Team Sky since their formation, he said there was not a “broad church” of people involved. “It’s not a broad church of people that are going to get involved in something like that. I had been told he was going to see a specialist and apply for a TUE. I was always: ‘Guys, whatever happens in this team you stick to the rules,’” he said. “You do not break the rules. You stay the right side of the line and stick to the rules always.”

Asked whether it was right that Wiggins appeared to receive the TUE as a preventative measure, Brailsford said: “You don’t wait until you have an asthma attack to take a puffer. The principle is the same. He has been recommended this. For me personally, at the time, did it ring any alarm bells? No.”

The injection of triamcinolone he received in 2012, before becoming the first British man to win the Tour de France, has come under particular scrutiny. Wiggins said on Sunday that he was “really struggling” with a pollen allergy in the run-up to the Tour, despite saying in his autobiography that he was in the form of his life and in good health.

“It’s difficult for me to comment on his comments in a book that he’s written. He’s had the opportunity to answer those. I haven’t seen the book. I’ve just got a process. We were abiding by all the UCI regulations. We were abiding by their no-needles policy,” Brailsford said.

The Team Sky principal insisted that “we never cross the line” but conceded that “at times, it’s challenging” to work out where the line is. “You can see from the scrutiny and the debate around this. It’s opinion. One thing is for sure, that you can see from the [Fancy Bears] hack that the TUEs are there,” he said. “In that sense, nothing wrong has been done in terms of breaking the rules. I think what people are questioning is whether it was inappropriate. At the time, having been involved in that process, I don’t think it was.”

Several experts have said that Wiggins would not have required the powerful corticosteroid if his condition had been properly managed. But Brailsford said he had complete faith in the system and in the UCI doctor Mario Zorzoli, who was briefly suspended in 2014 but later exonerated. It was Zorzoli who signed off on Wiggins’s 2011 TUE.

“He’s a great doctor, I must say. I’ve got lots of confidence in him. Even in the CIRC report, they credit the work he did. He was around the races, I knew him, I trusted him,” Brailsford said.

He also attempted to explain why Team Sky had never joined the Mouvement pour un Cyclisme Credible, whose members do not allow their riders to race if they require TUEs.

Brailsford said that when he first went to meetings about the nascent organisation, he was concerned that it would not go as far as Team Sky in its zero tolerance approach to former dopers and said he would rather work with the UCI to improve the rules for all teams rather than as part of a voluntary group.

“We have set out as a team to try and achieve high standards. I think we have achieved high standards and high results. We have been scrutinised many, many times in a fierce way over the last few years and still are,” he added, insisting he had “no regrets”.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And if they have an issue or a concern or want to have an opinion they are absolutely entitled to. It’s up to us to demonstrate that we live by our standards and demonstrate that what we say is robust and in line with what we set out to do.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...ey-wiggins-tue

Am I being a bit blind, because I can't see the quote in the headline as quote in the article.

Is it there?

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/OllieHolt22/status/784313141228294145[/ame]

[dom9]

What's the gist?

Another unreadable newspaper website.

[Vermilion]

I heard it was about a Medical Package delivered to team Sky during an event, flown from Geneva, then driven and handed to team Sky/Wiggins.

Sky have intimated it contained nothing dodgy.

[Vermilion]

UK Anti-Doping has said it is examining an “allegation of wrongdoing within cycling”. The announcement came as the Daily Mail reported Ukad is investigating Team Sky and Sir Bradley Wiggins over the contents of a medical package.

The newspaper alleges a package was delivered to Team Sky in France on 12 June, 2011, and it reports that Ukad is looking at what that contained.

Ukad, which is dedicated to protecting a culture of clean sport, did not go into any detail about the allegation it is looking at and mentioned no names.

A spokeswoman for Ukad said in a statement: “UK Anti-Doping is investigating an allegation of wrongdoing within cycling. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we will not comment further.”

Wiggins won the Dauphiné Libéré cycling race on the day the package was reportedly delivered, completing victory in the eight-day event after the final stage from Pontcharra to La Toussuire.

According to documents leaked by Russian hacker group Fancy Bears, Wiggins had a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for triamcinolone acetonide – a synthetic corticosteroid – which was effective from 29 June, 2011. Any use of a banned substance requires an active TUE.

The Daily Mail reports that while British Cycling has not identified the substance in the package, it has indicated it did not contain triamcinolone.

Wiggins and Team Sky have strenuously denied any wrongdoing since it emerged the 2012 Tour de France winner has received six TUEs during his career, insisting each time the exemptions were medically necessary due to asthma and pollen allergies.

A host of major names from world sport have seen hacked personal information released into the public domain recently, although the World Anti-Doping Agency indicated earlier this week that Fancy Bears may have doctored or fabricated some of the medical documents it has released.

United States Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart has labelled the Fancy Bears “con artists” after the hackers accused US sports officials of covering up doping.

The Russian group on Thursday released email exchanges that it claimed revealed that “Usada covers up many athletes using prohibited substances”.

Tygart hit back by dismissing the group’s latest release as “desperate” and “malicious”.

“This is just another desperate attempt to distract from the real issue of (Russian) state-sponsored doping,” Tygart told BBC Sport.

He said the Fancy Bears were trying to “smear the reputations of athletes and organisations from around the world who choose to operate with integrity and abide by the rules”.

“They are con artists,” he added. “We are confident that people will see this for what it is: a malicious and illegal invasion of athlete privacy followed by a baseless smear campaign.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/oct/07/bradley-wiggins-team-sky-ukad-investigate-wrongdoing-allegations

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/sportingintel/status/784376037731950592[/ame]

[RichC]

tbf what else do they expect them to come out with. As far as tweets go that's about as vapid, worthless and pointless as Sky's response.

[dom9]

Yup.

I've got a lot of time for Sporting Intelligence but that was a bit rough pointless. He's set him self a higher standard than that.

[captainfog]

He took some TUEs. Big deal. They were approved and and therefore he's done nothing wrong. Whether they should be allowed is a separate debate but the facts are that they are allowed and so it seems hugely unfair to criticise riders for taking them. As for this package, he's had a million drug tests in the aftermath of this incident and he hasn't failed any of them.

[dom9]

He took some TUEs. Big deal. They were approved and and therefore he's done nothing wrong. Whether they should be allowed is a separate debate but the facts are that they are allowed and so it seems hugely unfair to criticise riders for taking them. As for this package, he's had a million drug tests in the aftermath of this incident and he hasn't failed any of them.

Yup.

If the problem is the rules, then change rules, but don't blame the players.

As I keep saying.

[RichC]

It's bigger than he took some TUEs, the timings look bloody suspicious (before 3 seperate grand tours) and allergy treatment through injections does seem a touch suspect to say the least.

The ability to get these TUE exemptions is really the bigger issue though as like most things you can almost guarantee that this will be subject to abuse.

[dom9]

It's bigger than he took some TUEs, the timings look bloody suspicious (before 3 seperate grand tours) and allergy treatment through injections does seem a touch suspect to say the least.

The ability to get these TUE exemptions is really the bigger issue though as like most things you can almost guarantee that this will be subject to abuse.

Right, but those suspicions should have been investigated by the TUE approval process.

They either were investigated thoroughly, and the thing was approved with a good reason. Or they weren't investigated thoroughly, which means the implementation of the system is not fit for purpose.

[captainfog]

It's bigger than he took some TUEs, the timings look bloody suspicious (before 3 seperate grand tours) and allergy treatment through injections does seem a touch suspect to say the least.

The ability to get these TUE exemptions is really the bigger issue though as like most things you can almost guarantee that this will be subject to abuse.

Yes, but it had to be approved by independent doctors. If they didn't want him to take them then they should have said so at the time. It's not like he did it without asking. And I'm not sure it's that suspicious, if you suffer from mild asthma and allergies then the one time you want to take medication for that is right before a big race rather than risk blowing up with breathing difficulties mid stage.