The drugs furore surrounding British Cycling and Team Sky has entered new territory with claims that UK anti-doping investigators uncovered evidence that testosterone patches were delivered in 2011 to Dr Richard Freeman, the doctor at the heart of Ukad’s inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing at the two organisations.

Using testosterone is banned at all times under the world anti-doping code. Freeman was contacted by the Guardian but did not comment.

It is understood that the box of testosterone patches was opened by a British Cycling employee who was unaware of its contents. The employee confronted Freeman, who was responsible for ordering medical supplies. The doctor’s explanation, according to a former head of medicine at British Cycling quoted by the Sunday Times – and corroborated to the Guardian by a source close to British Cycling and Sky with knowledge of the story – was that the package had been delivered in error.

Freeman has, apparently, told Ukad it was not destined for any riders.

Dr Steve Peters, who was head of medical at British Cycling and Team Sky, told the Sunday Times he and a British Cycling colleague were on site when the package arrived and that they questioned Freeman over it. It was established that the supplier had sent it by mistake and it was returned, something which he had confirmed with Freeman. Peters was, he said, satisfied that it was “an administrative error”.

Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Sky’s principal, was contacted by the Guardian but did not respond while Team Sky added on Sunday that they had not been aware of the episode and that it did not relate to them, being a British Cycling matter.

The claim emerged just days after a hearing by the parliamentary culture, media and sport committee into doping at which Freeman was initially expected to appear, to answer questions about a package delivered to one of his charges, the then Team Sky leader Sir Bradley Wiggins, at the 2011 Dauphine Libéré race. Freeman was unable to attend the hearing due to health reasons.

The Ukad head, Nicole Sapstead, told MPs her inquiry had established that Freeman had ordered quantities of the corticosteroid triamcinolone which were “far more” than she would have expected for the three doses of the drug – which is only banned under certain circumstances and is permitted for genuine health needs – given to Wiggins, who received permission from cycling’s governing body, the UCI, to use it to treat pollen allergies.

She added that there was little chance of establishing to whom the triamcinolone had been administered due to the fact that Freeman had not uploaded medical records to a shared database, and that his laptop had been stolen in 2014.

A source close to Sky also backed up a further revelation in the Sunday Times that the team’s other doctors had jointly blocked an attempt by Freeman to obtain a therapeutic use exemption in early September 2013 due to concerns about the lack of consultation over Freeman’s earlier applications for the TUEs for Wiggins.

The team’s former head of medicine Alan Farrell told the Sunday Times he changed the pin used to obtain access to the World Anti Doping Agency computer system, ADAMs, which is used for TUE applications, and turned down two requests for the pin from Freeman. The team subsequently brought in a system whereby two doctors would be required to apply for TUEs.

Team Sky said they were unwilling to comment in detail over Farrell’s allegation, but would do so in their own time. The team said last week in the wake of the House of Commons hearing that its “commitment to anti-doping has been one of the founding principles of the team from the very start. Team Sky is a clean team. We abide by the rules and we are proud of our stance against doping.



“Any medical treatment, whatever its status, would only ever be given to a Team Sky rider if it was considered to be medically appropriate and justified. We have worked hard to put the right governance structures in place and we believe that our approach to anti-doping is rigorous and comprehensive.”