Sky And Wiggins's Reputation In Tatters After DCMS Report

- Nigel Wynn and Vern Pitt

Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins have been left battling to salvage their shredded reputations this week after a report by MPs found they “crossed an ethical line” to use powerful corticosteroids “to enhance the performance of riders”.

The 54-page ‘Combating Doping in Sport’ report (14 pages of which dealt with cycling) comes after more than a year of investigation by the MPs, who took evidence from a wide range of people in the sport including Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford, former rider Nicole Cooke, former British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton and former British Cycling president Bob Howden.

The House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which authored the report, looked at Bradley Wiggins’s Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for corticosteroids — which strip the body of fat — ahead of the 2011 and 2012 Tours de France and the 2013 Giro d’Italia; the infamous jiffy bag delivered to Sky doctor Richard Freeman at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011 and Sky and British Cycling’s record-keeping and medical policies.