British Cycling has "failed to provide any documentary proof" to a parliamentary committee that a "medical package" administered to Bradley Wiggins in the weeks before the 2011 Tour de France contained only a legal decongestant, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. The latest controversy, which came as Wiggins announced his retirement from professional cycling on Wednesday, "deepened further" after a copy of a credit card bill from Simon Cope, the British Cycling coach who couriered the medication from Manchester to France, "raised further questions over the package." British Cycling President Bob Howden has written to the Culture, Media & Sport select committee saying that the governing body only “understands” that the package contained Fluimucil, and they have been unable to access documents and information because they “are locked down by UK Anti-Doping [UKAD] investigators.” Shane Sutton, Team Sky’s head coach at the time, has said that Wiggins, who denies any wrongdoing, was “struggling” with ill health for the last few days of the Dauphiné race in '11 and that he arranged for Cope to bring the package as he was traveling to the Dauphiné anyway for a “logistics reason" (LONDON TIMES, 12/29). The BBC reported Team Sky Principal Dave Brailsford told MPs earlier in December that the package "contained a decongestant but did not have supporting documentary evidence." MP Damian Collins said, "What we hoped we might get is a paper trail -- it should be really simple. But clearly that doesn't exist." He added, "It seems difficult to get precise records about what was in this package, why it was ordered -- the detail you would want to know" (BBC, 12/29).
