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Cycling will conduct a wide-ranging review of its medical practices after being
criticised by UK Anti-Doping's recent investigation.
Britain's cycling governing body and Team Sky were both
heavily criticised for sloppy record-keeping following the probe into the contents
of a package delivered to Team Sky in France at the end of the 2011 Criterium
du Dauphine race.
Neither the team nor British Cycling were able to provide
documentary evidence of the package's contents, and earlier this year UKAD
chief Nicole Sapstead told MPs the governing body had no idea if the drugs in
its medical store were intended for its riders or Team Sky's.
British Cycling has now asked the English Institute for
Sport's director of medical services, Dr Rod Jaques, to conduct an independent
review of its medical and physiotherapy teams' operational practice.
His report is expected in June and British Cycling's people
director Michael Chivers said: "We are committed to providing the highest
standards of medical support.
"That's why we've commissioned an external expert to
scrutinise our existing processes and procedures and to make a series of
recommendations on how we can improve.
"We will not pre-judge what the recommendations might
be, but we are keen to bring parity between performance and health and welfare,
and to ensure we reduce the potential for conflicts of interest between a
team's medical staff and its coaches."
UK Anti-Doping has been investigating allegations of
wrong-doing affecting both British Cycling and Team Sky.
Winners of four of the last five Tours de France, Team Sky
have been under scrutiny since October when it was revealed UKAD was looking
into a claim former star rider Bradley Wiggins was injected with triamcinolone
at the end of the Criterium du Dauphine in 2011.
It emerged last September that Wiggins was given permission
for jabs of the otherwise-banned drug before his three biggest races in 2011,
2012 and 2013, including his breakthrough Tour de France win in 2012.
The now-retired Wiggins has denied any wrongdoing.
Central to the investigation has been the contents of a
package delivered to the team at the end of that race, hand-delivered by a
British Cycling coach and sent from the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
Dr Richard Freeman, the former Team Sky medic, has said he
cannot find any records to prove the package contained the legal decongestant
called Fluimucil because he failed to follow team policy by sharing those
records with colleagues.
UK Anti-Doping is yet to publish the findings of its investigation, while the results of a concurrent probe by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee will now not appear until after the upcoming general election.
