British Cycling’s Simon Cope and Dr. Richard Freeman will be questioned by the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee of the UK Parliament on 1 March, after UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said it had no objections to the pair being questioned despite an ongoing investigation into a pharmaceutical package delivered to Bradley Wiggins. After a previous hearing on 19 December, British Cycling told the CMS Committee that it could not provide further evidence about the contents of a package delivered for Wiggins at the end of the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné due to UKAD’s ongoing investigation.

UKAD Chief Executive Nicole Sapstead will also be questioned about UKAD’s ongoing investigation into the matter on 1 March. ‘Nicole Sapstead has confirmed that she is able to discuss the investigation with the Committee, and also that UKAD now has no objection to Mr Simon Cope and Dr Richard Freeman also answering the Committee’s questions about the investigation’, read a 20 February CMS Committee statement.

An evidential package (PDFs below) provided by British Cycling to the CMS Committee showed that it spent £1,263.90 sending women’s road coach Simon Cope to deliver the package, the contents of which were administered to Wiggins by Freeman. British Cycling said that it ‘understood’ that the package contained fluimucil, a drug not licensed for use in the UK and not recommended for suffers of asthma, such as Wiggins. Fluimucil is freely available in France, where the Critérium du Dauphiné takes place. It is also freely available in Italy, where Wiggins and Team Sky were heading for a training camp in Sestriere, after the Critérium had finished. There are five pharmacies within 10 kilometres of Sestriere.