It’s disturbing Bradley Wiggins used a steroid just before season, says Nicole Cooke

Former Olympic and world champion Nicole Cooke says she is sceptical why Sir Bradley Wiggins needed to take a powerful corticosteroid ahead of winning the 2012 Tour de France.

Wiggins, British Cycling and Team Sky have been under investigation by UK Anti-Doping for the former cyclist’s Therapeutic Use Exemptions.

Wiggins was injected with triamcinolone to treat his asthma and allergies but Cooke was dismissive of such a medical approach. Speaking to MPs via a video link in Westminster via Paris today, she said: “I’m not a medical expert but I’ve sought the advice of medical experts who suggested it [triamcinolone] wasn’t the optimal treatment for asthma.

“What I find disturbing is the chronological sequence used just before the racing season. I am sceptical based on these coincidental events but I don’t have the medical knowledge or expertise to form an opinion on that.”

UKAD is investigating Wiggins’s use of TUEs and also a jiffy bag transported by then women’s cycling manager Simon Cope to Wiggins after the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine. Wiggins and Cope have denied any wrongdoing throughout and neither has been found to have contravened any anti-doping regulations.

But Cooke said she was “astonished” Cope did not know the contents of the bag and raised questions about Team Sky’s claim to be the sport’s cleanest team.

She said: “The team principal Dave Brailsford not knowing or being able to know what the riders were treated with definitely makes it harder to think that they can back up that claim. He obviously doesn’t know what’s going on.”

In her written evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport committee, Cooke said: “Pertinent to the ‘jiffy bag’ incident is that two of the protagonists are directly involved in the Linda McCartney cycling team [which disbanded in 2011]. Both Simon Cope and Bradley Wiggins rode for this team.

“Team manager Julian Clark and rider Matt DeCanio state doping was practised within the team. Apparently UKAD have testimony from three members of the team stating that riders used PEDs [performance-enhancing drugs].

“But as of June 2016 three of the British members of this team: Sean Yates, Max Sciandri and Matt Stephens all stated that UKAD had made no contact with them. How patient do we have to be or are UKAD doing nothing?”