Bradley Wiggins: corticosteroid use ‘wasn’t about trying to gain an unfair advantage’

The Andrew Marr interview was recorded before a former team doctor of Sir Bradley questioned the decision to allow him to use the drug just days before major races.

Bradley Wiggins has said that he in no way was looking for an unfair advantage by taking the steroid triamcinolone for allergies and asthma issues ahead of his victorious 2012 Tour de France race.

Bradley Wiggins has spoken about the release of his medical records in the wake of the leak from Russian hacker group Fancy Bears.

“[They were taking] more of it, and abusing it and this was to cure a medical condition”.

The data leaked relates to Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), which allow athletes to take banned substances for verified medical needs and are signed off by sports federations.

The first Briton to win the Tour de France, Wiggins has been the subject of allegations of hypocrisy over the timing of the medical interventions since his anti-doping records were among those leaked by cyber hackers on the fancybear.net website.

The targeted athletes have been revealed to have received TUEs for the use of substances that would usually contravene anti-doping rules.

Speaking on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, Sir Bradley, 36, said: “It was prescribed for allergies and respiratory problems”.

The cyclist said that on each occasion permission had been granted under the regulations of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, and WADA.

“Especially for the guys that are winning and competing at performing at the Tour De France”, he said.

“You have to show and provide evidence from a specialist that they will then scrutinise with three independent doctors and authorise you to take this product”.

Sir Bradley’s TUEs applications are understood to have been made by the then team doctor Dr Richard Freeman, who is now team doctor at British Cycling. “Team Sky, biggest cycling team in the world, 100%, everything they’ve done has been within the rules and abided [sic] by the rules that they have set to us, and we are being scrutinised for staying within the speed limit”.

“[And] you have the medical team and coaches checking everything’s okay – ‘Brad, you’re on track here, you’re the favourite to win this race, now we need to make sure the next three weeks, is there anything we can help with at the moment?'”

Prentice Steffen told BBC’s Newsnight on Friday that he was “surprised” he was prescribed the drug.

“Cycling has obviously been through a very turbulent period the last couple of years in the post-Lawrence Armstrong era, and obviously I won the Tour de France right at the height of that in 2012, and – and it’s still an open wound in cycling and it will take many years to get over that”, he said.

Wiggins’ use of TUEs has prompted criticism of the rider and Team Sky from certain quarters, with fellow cyclist Tom Dumoulin telling Dutch newspaper De Limburger: “This case stinks”.

“You do have to think it is kind of coincidental that a big dose of intramuscular long-acting corticosteroids would be needed at that time of year, at that exact time, before the most important race of the season”.

Wiggins will hope this interview draws a line under a hard chapter in what has been an otherwise magnificent story for him as an athlete, particularly as he is widely expected to retire as a professional rider at the end of this season.

“I’ve been a life-long sufferer of asthma and I went to my team doctor at the time and we went, in turn, to a specialist to see if there’s anything else we could do to cure these problems”, Wiggins said.

“Team Sky’s approach to anti-doping – and our commitment to clean competition – is well known”.