British Cycling have declined to confirm or deny whether Team Sky physician, doctor Richard Freeman, offered riders Tramadol on the morning of the 2012 World Championships road race. The governing body confirmed Friday that there is an ongoing UKAD investigation, "with which we are cooperating fully", but said they would be "unable to comment further at this stage".
In a BBC exclusive Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who rode the Worlds for Great Britain in 2012, claimed that he was offered the painkiller from a doctor but that he turned it down. During the BBC interview he did not name the doctor in question but the former Team Sky rider has since told Cyclingnews that it was Dr Richard Freeman, then of Team Sky, and now of British Cycling, who allegedly made the offer.
Tramadol is an opiate. It is not banned in competition, but has been the subject of review by WADA due to concerns over its abuse within professional sport.
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Former Team Sky rider, Michael Barry confirmed in his book that he was given the drug by his then team, with the squad adding that it had been "minimally" used. They have since called for it to be banned.
Freeman has been in the news recently due to his role in applying for Bradley Wiggins’ TUEs during the Tour de France winner’s career. Although Freeman broke no rules in applying to the UCI in order for Wiggins’ to receive intramuscular injections of corticosteroids, the story has caused shockwaves with former riders claiming that they used the same drug in question in order to gain a performance enhancement. Wiggins has claimed that the steroid - triamcinolone - was used to treat allergies.
Freeman was also subject to scrutiny in a Daily Mail story on Thursday in which it was alleged that a staff member of British Cycling travelled out to the Criterium du Dauphine in 2011 with the sole purpose of delivering medication to Wiggins.
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