Sir Bradley Wiggins has called for a new investigation to identify who Dr Richard Freeman ordered banned testosterone for and who else knew about it — admitting the saga ‘stinks to high heaven’.
Former British Cycling and Team Sky chief doctor Freeman was last week found guilty of ordering Testogel to the Manchester Velodrome in 2011 ‘knowing or believing’ it was to dope an unnamed rider.
Wiggins, who won the Tour de France in 2012 and gold in the time trial at London 2012, does not believe any rider was ‘in the game of doing s*** like that’ because they were tested so often.
But the five-time Olympic champion admits the answers given so far are not good enough and leave a cloud hanging over British riders from that era.
Dr Richard Freeman (second left) has been found guilty of ordering banned testosterone ‘knowing or believing’ it was to be given to a rider to improve their athletic performance
Speaking on his Eurosport podcast, he said: ‘The whole thing stinks to high heaven. It wants looking into further.
‘Yes, he’s been found guilty and (the drugs have) come into the building, so it falls on (Freeman’s) head. Who else’s head does it fall on? Can we have a look into it more because what exactly happened? Someone must know.
‘Is this sort of stuff going on where accidentally a load of testosterone gel is coming in and no one knows?
‘You’re jeopardising your duty of care towards athletes and people’s kids and people’s husbands and wives. The people that are in there, in this great British system that we’ve got, in which we’ve won all these Olympic medals over the years funded by public money — that is not good enough. There needs to be more of an explanation as to who were they for? What were they for?
‘I don’t think for one minute they were for any rider, at all. That wasn’t the type of system that was run. But it leaves a cloud over it. I understand that and it makes it a bloody good story as well.
Sir Bradley Wiggins has called for an investigation into the intended recipient of the package
‘There’s something else going on and someone knows something. I don’t quite know what the hell is going on but it needs a follow-up now. The suggestion is the drugs were for a rider.
‘I don’t think anyone was doing s*** like that, I don’t think anyone was stupid enough because you’d get caught the amount of times we were tested.
‘But how it’s been left now is that there’s no actual conclusion. It’s just, “he’s guilty of this charge” with this side piece of “maybe it’s to dope a rider”.
‘Well, I don’t think so but that’s the way it looks and I understand that.
‘But rather than just leave it at that, can we get to the bottom of it? Shall we have another investigation? That’s probably the best way.’
During his medical tribunal, Freeman claimed he was bullied into ordering 30 sachets of Testogel by former Team Sky technical director Shane Sutton to treat his alleged erectile dysfunction.
Sutton dismissed this and said he has been made a scapegoat. Wiggins added: ‘As far as I’m aware, there was Dr Steve Peters opening the box saying, “What the hell’s this doing here?”
‘And then there was a complete breakdown… then a whole barrel of different explanations after that. It doesn’t actually leave us anywhere further forward.
‘The thing should never have been in the bloody building in the first place.
‘It’s just left this assumption that it must have been for a rider. I don’t know anyone in their right mind that would use that for doping in that period.
‘I was probably tested about 56 times that year and I was winning a few races too which puts you in more stringent testing. There is now this assumption that it must have been for a rider. Well, not necessarily. It might have been for a staff member, it might have been for a female athlete, it might have been someone from another sport, who knows?’
Wiggins suggested ‘we always knew’ that Dr Freeman was guilty of ordering the testosterone
The medical tribunal, which lasted more than two years, found Freeman’s actions were ‘incapable of innocent explanation’.
In a subsequent interview with Sportsmail, Freeman said he was shocked at the verdict against him, adding: ‘I have never doped a rider in my life.’
The hearing will resume on Tuesday, when the tribunal will consider if Freeman’s fitness to practise is impaired.
Wiggins, 40, is one of Britain’s most successful cyclists, having won five Olympic titles along with the 2012 Tour de France.
Episodes of The Bradley Wiggins Show by Eurosport are available weekly throughout the cycling season.