Great Britain riders Luke Rowe and Stephen Cummings, and coach Rod Ellingworth, have refuted claims that the controversial painkiller Tramadol was 'freely' handed out to riders at the 2012 UCI Road World Championships.
In an interview with the BBC earlier this month, former Team Sky and Great Britain cyclist Jonathan Tiernan-Locke said that a team doctor had handed it out to the team. In an interview with Cyclingnews, Tiernan-Locke later named the doctor as Richard Freeman, who worked with Team Sky at the time. It is an accusation that Dr. Freeman has denied.
Rowe and Cummings, who are both competing at this year's World Championships in Doha, Qatar, were part of the squad in Valkenburg in 2012 along with Tiernan-Locke.
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"It's not my recollection," Rowe said of the accusations, before going on to question the reputation of Tiernan-Locke, who is currently serving a suspension for irregularities in his biological passport. "I think that it's no surprise that someone like him would say something like that. He's quite clearly a bitter and twisted individual, and he's still not over it all, and he's going to come out with a statement like that. I didn't get offered Tramadol at that race."
Cummings said that he was shocked to hear of Tiernan-Locke's accusations. "It was a surprise to me. First thing is no it never happened, and second thing is that Tramadol isn't banned," he said. "I can categorically say that it wasn't handed around. I was sat there."
Ellingworth, who was also in Valkenburg in his role as Great Britain coach, also stated that he had not seen Dr. Freeman handing out Tramadol. "I was there, I was on the bus. I never witnessed it ever. I was there, very much involved in it and I saw nothing at all," he said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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