The two men who "respectively delivered a medical package and administered the contents to" Bradley Wiggins before the 2011 Tour de France "could be asked to appear before MPs should the UK Anti-Doping investigation fail to prove beyond doubt what the mystery contents were," according to Alyson Rudd of the LONDON TIMES. Neither British Cycling nor Team Sky could "provide evidence to support" Dave Brailsford’s claim that the package contained a "commonly available decongestant." Wiggins was given medication by Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman in June '11 after Simon Cope, a British Cycling coach at the time, had "taken a journey four-days in the planning and costing almost £600" to meet up with the team at the end of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Neither Cope nor Freeman were asked to give evidence to a parliamentary committee on Dec. 19, when Brailsford said that "he understood the product to be Fluimucil," though British Cycling has "failed to provide MPs with any evidence to confirm the claim." If UKAD’s investigation does not "clear up the confusion" then Culture, Media & Sport Committee Chair Damian Collins said that he "may be prepared to call more witnesses -- including Cope and Freeman" (LONDON TIMES, 12/30).
SECRET REPORT: In London, Martyn Ziegler reported three months before the day in June '11 that Cope delivered a medical package to Wiggins' team bus, "a confidential independent report warned of the risks posed by the links between British Cycling and Team Sky." The secret 69-page report "had been commissioned by UK Sport to examine whether the interests of Britain’s publicly funded cycling programme had been in any way compromised by many of its senior management figures and highest profile male riders also working for the professional team," which had been set up with its commercial backer in '09. The report claimed that senior figures had made assurances that "for the 2011 season, the amount of resource sharing [with Team Sky] is expected by British Cycling to be minimal." It added that head coach Shane Sutton "will work almost exclusively" with the Great Britain cycling team rather than Sky (LONDON TIMES, 12/30).
