Olympic Gold medalist Nicole Cooke spares no one in swipe at British cycling

It may be Team GB's most successful sport, but it is also without question its most controversial.

The Olympic and world champion Nicole Cooke confirmed that yesterday when she was scathing about cycling from top to bottom.

No one was spared. Certainly not the two cycling knights - Wiggins and Brailsford - or British Cycling, which she says is "run for men, by men."

In a wide ranging testimony to a parliamentary committee, Cooke said she was "sceptical" about Sir Bradley Wiggins' medical exemptions to use banned steroids before three major races - including his Tour de France win.

Cooke said she had taken the same steroid to treat an injury of her own and was well aware of its performance enhancing reputation.

Describing misuses of these types of exemptions across the sport, she even went on to say it was a "very convenient way to mask a doping programme". Ouch.

Cooke saved most of her considered, yet deadly, criticism for those who run cycling in this country.

She painted a picture of a sport that has habitually treated women, however good, as second class citizens.

Never mind that for every Hoy or Kenny there is a Cooke, Pendleton or Trott.

Her evidence, littered with compelling examples of her grievances, is a forerunner to a review into British Cycling - albeit commissioned by the same body it's investigating.

It stands accused of both sexism and harbouring a bullying culture.

The conclusions are due to be published soon and are likely to provoke argument about what is acceptable behaviour inside an elite, high-pressure and unforgiving sporting environment.

It's unlikely there will be a consensus.

Ironically, one of those who's part of the inquiry team - which listened to 100 plus contributors - is the former England rugby coach, Stuart Lancaster.

I say ironically because a more honest, polite and dignified coach would be hard to come by.

You cannot imagine the way he talked to his England players in any way mirrors the dialogue used by his Aussie successor Eddie Jones. Jones, remember, has even told one of his squad to go away and lose weight.

But then look at their results: Lancaster presided over a World Cup disaster and Jones has yet to lose.