With controversy continuing to build around Team Sky, British Cycling and Bradley Wiggins' controversial application of Therapeutic Use Exemptions, it was no surprise that the issue arose Friday with members of the British team at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
In a round of questions from the gathered media, Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe and performance director Rod Ellingworth all backed Wiggins to different degrees, with Thomas admitting he knew nothing about his former teammates' use of TUEs for injections of a strong corticosteroid drug that is normally banned in competition. Wiggins obtained permission to have injections of triamcinolone ahead of the 2011 Tour de France, the 2012 Tour de France – which he won – and the 2013 Giro d'Italia.
No anti-doping rules were broken because the UCI approved the TUEs, but the issue has generated ample discussion around the ethics of TUE use.
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Asked if he was comfortable with Wiggins' TUEs given what he knows now, Thomas said in Wiggins' specific case it was "hard to say."
"I don't know how much he was suffering and how much that drug helped him," Thomas said. “But as I've seen a lot of other people say, the main thing is the whole issue of TUEs in general, how they are used and given out.
"I would be quite happy to ban them completely in sport," Thomas said. "I think sport is about pushing yourself and your body to the limits. If you have a sore knee or asthma or something, that is just part of it. It is a bit of a dodgy area, though, isn't it?"
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