LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain’s professional cycling team, Ineos Grenadiers, said none of its riders had tried to use the testosterone testosterone that a medical tribunal concluded yesterday had been ordered by a disgraced former chief doctor.
Richard Freeman, who worked for the uniform formerly known as Team Sky and British Cycling between 2009 and 2017, was found guilty by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service of a “safe knowing or believing” Testogel order for an athlete to recover its performance.
The athlete has not been named but Freeman’s links with Team Sky during a period of great success where he won several Tour de France titles have thrown a cloud over the British uniform.
In a statement Ineos Grenadiers said it respected the findings of the lengthy hearing and said Freeman had failed to meet the ethical standards required of him as a doctor.
However, the team, set up and still run by former British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford, said none of its riders were involved.
“The team does not believe that any athlete has used or attempted to use Testogel or any other performance enhancing substance,” he said in a statement.
“No evidence has been provided that this has ever happened or that any athlete has committed any wrongdoing at any time. We will continue to give our full support and co-operation to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), as we have done throughout this process, as they continue to investigate their behavior. “
British Cycling also issued a statement in relation to a medical tribunal ruling yesterday.
“The finding that the distribution of testosterone gel in 2011 intended to improve the performance of a rider illegally is very worrying,” he said.
“We are leaving any further action in this regard to UK Anti-Doping, whose work will be enthusiastically supported.”
Freeman left British Cycling in 2017. The organization added that it has since made “significant changes to the way we provide medical services to riders competing for Great Britain, in the midst of much wider improvements to our governance which, in our view, now putting us at the forefront of our sector work. ”
Freeman was employed as a senior doctor for the British Cycling team that dominated the London 2012 Olympics and Rio de Janeiro 2016 while he was also employed by Team Sky as he won the Tour de France in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
He was at the center of another investigation into a jiffy bag ordered on behalf of former Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine bike race in France.
Team Sky maintained it was a flu treatment but the contents of the bag were never established during the UKAD investigation into British Cycling and Team Sky which concluded in 2017.
Freeman said his laptop containing details of the delivery to the Dauphine was stolen in 2014, leading British Cycling to admit “serious failures” in record keeping.
Wiggins has denied any wrongdoing and said in 2018 he had no knowledge of the package until it was requested.
In the latest long-standing tribunal, Freeman initially said the Testogel was mistakenly ordered and returned, before later claiming he was under pressure to order it for former British Cycling coach Shane Sutton, an allegation that was rejected by Sutton and dismissed as an “iniquity of iniquity” by the tribunal. Damian Collins, former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said the case posed difficult questions for British sport.
“How could the chief physician of Team Sky and Cycle Britain order a prohibited substance ‘knowing or believing’ was to help a cyclist cheat the anti-doping rules,” he asked on Twitter.
“Was this something unique, who was the recipient, why was there no alleged oversight of what he was ordering?
“In light of the MPTS findings in Dr Freeman’s case, we should review the funding and enforcement of the anti-doping code in UK sport.”