British Cycling coach invited to doping inquiry

The Culture, Media and Sport select committee has formally invited British Cycling coach Simon Cope to give evidence at their inquiry into doping in cycling.

Cope delivered a package on the last day of the Criterium du Dauphine on the final day, a race which Bradley Wiggins won.

Team Sky supremo Dave Brailsford has already appeared before the committee and claimed that he 'had been told' that the package contained Fluimucil, a legal decongestant, but the MPs involved admitted they are concerned by certain aspects of the evidence presented thus far at the hearings.

Dr Richard Freeman, who received the package on behalf of Team Sky, and the head of UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) Nicole Sapstead will also appear to give evidence on February 22nd.

"There is a considerable public interest in Ukad's investigation and it is also important to our inquiry into doping in sport to understand what they have been able to determine from their investigation," committee chairman Damien Collins MP said.

"The committee has been told by both British Cycling and Team Sky that they have supplied all the information they have relating to this investigation to Ukad.

"However, we need to know if they have received documentary evidence which confirms what was in the package that was delivered by Simon Cope to Team Sky.

"Without this evidence, I am concerned about how it is possible for the anti-doping rules to be policed in an appropriate manner, if it is not possible to review the records of medicines prescribed to riders by the team doctors."

Cope had claimed in an interview with Cycling News that he had no idea what was in the package he delivered, saying it was "just an envelope, a Jiffy bag, a small Jiffy bag."

Cope has since expanded on this, also saying. "To this day, hand on heart, on my kids' hearts, I do not know what was in there. I was asked to do a job.

"I was told by senior management, 'We want you to do that' or, "Do this'... People say, 'You're naive, you should have asked because you're going through customs'. Maybe I was, but also why would I question?

"I had been working at British Cycling for eight years and I had never seen anything to question."

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