Team Sky boss defends Sir Bradley Wiggins over use of banned drug

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Brailsford has launched a fierce defence of Sir Bradley Wiggins. Credit: John Stillwell / PA Archive

Team Sky boss Sir David Brailsford has defended the decision to get special permission for Sir Bradley Wiggins to receive injections of a banned drug before three major races, including his historic win in the 2012 Tour de France.

Wiggins' use of the powerful anti-inflammatory drug triamcinolone on the eve of the 2011 and 2012 Tours and 2013 Giro d'Italia was revealed when a group of Russian computer hackers starting leaking the medical data of dozens of top athletes almost a fortnight ago.

The 36-year-old British star applied, and was granted, three therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) to take the drug to deal with a pollen allergy that aggravates his long-standing asthma condition.

Sir David told ITV News that the team has a "duty of care" to its riders.

He said: "If you are employing people and paying people and want people to perform at a certain level, and they're ill and they need certain medication, which is the right medication, and everybody agrees it's the right medication to treat that illness, you are not necessarily giving somebody an unfair advantage. You are treating that illness."

But triamcinolone has been widely used as a doping agent by riders, including Lance Armstrong, and is believed to help athletes lose weight, fight fatigue and aid recovery.

Investigative journalist David Walsh, who was instrumental in exposing Armstrong as a drug cheat, believes the news about Wiggins' therapeutic drug use tarnishes his Tour de France victory in 2012.

Wiggins' TUEs, which were stolen from the World Anti-Doping Agency's computer servers by the so-called 'Fancy Bears international hack team', were approved by cycling's world governing body the UCI and there is no suggestion that he or the team have broken any rules.

But that has not stopped both the rider and Team Sky facing a barrage of criticism from inside and outside the sport, particularly given the team's much-publicised "zero tolerance" attitude towards doping, and Wiggins' own comments about drugs cheats and the use of needles in his autobiographies.

Wiggins won the 2012 Tour de France. Credit: PA

Brailsford reiterated his belief that the team had done nothing wrong.

He said: "If there's a medical need for something, it is different from abusing something and trying to get a performance enhancement.

"And I think athletes have the right to have a medical need addressed but then we have to have checks and balances to make sure the system is not being abused.

"And what we had in the past, is that people have abused it."