Steve Peters tells Sunday Times delivery was made in error
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Former Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman in a 2014 team photoshoot(Image credit: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Bradley Wiggins on his way to winning the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine
Team Sky's Dave Brailsford and Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France
Team Sky doctor Alan Farrell(Image credit: Team Sky)
Bradley Wiggins and Shane Sutton before the 2011 Tour de France
The UK Anti-Doping investigation into Team Sky has found evidence that Dr. Richard Freeman took delivery of a batch of testosterone patches at the Manchester velodrome in 2011, the Sunday Times has reported.
Freeman was working for both Team Sky and British Cycling at the time, and medicines ordered by both Team Sky and British Cycling were held in the same store room at the National Cycle Centre.
Dr. Steve Peters, formerly the head of medicine at British Cycling, told the Sunday Times that the testosterone patches had been sent in error and were returned to the supplier. Freeman has reportedly told UKAD that they were not for use by riders.
"I was with a colleague when the order arrived and it was immediately brought to our attention. Dr Freeman, who was responsible for ordering medical supplies, explained that the order had never been placed and so must have been sent in error," Peters told the Sunday Times.
"He contacted the supplier by phone the same day and they confirmed this. I asked Dr Freeman to repack and return it to the supplier, and to make sure they provided written confirmation that it was sent in error and had been received. That confirmation arrived and was shown to me by Dr Freeman. I was satisfied that this was simply an administrative error and it wasn't necessary to escalate it further, and so Dave Brailsford was not made aware."
The quantity of banned testosterone patches received is unknown, but the Sunday Times reports that UKAD has established that sixty to seventy 40mg vials of triamcinolone were delivered to the Manchester velodrome in 2011, though no medical records have been produced to justify such a quantity.
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The Sunday Times article also claims that in 2013 former Sky doctor Alan Farrell withheld the team's password for the online ADAMS system from Freeman in order to prevent him from applying for a fourth TUE for Wiggins ahead of that year's Tour of Britain.
On Wednesday, Freeman failed to appear at a House of Committee Select Committee hearing in which he would have been asked to explain what was contained in the mysterious Jiffy bag that Simon Cope delivered to him at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné, won by Wiggins. Sky, British Cycling and Freeman have previously stated that it contained the over-the-counter decongestant, Fluimucil, but no paper trail has been produced to back this up.
