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Sir Bradley Wiggins after becoming World Time Trial Champion, 2014 (copyright Britishcycling.org.uk)Wiggins says timing of injections was due to ‘unpredictable’ nature of allergies
Sir Bradley Wiggins says that he needed therapeutic use exemptions for the banned corticosteroid triamcinolone because he was already on ‘the maximum for over-the-counter products’ and was still often suffering allergy problems.
In a long interview with The Guardian’s William Fotheringham, who worked with him on his 2012 autobiography, Wiggins explains how he has suffered from the effects of pollen allergies since the 2003 Giro d’Italia, arguing that at times they have significantly affected his performances.
As one example, he said he won the time trial in the 2011 Bayern Rundfahrt, but believed asthma problems prevented him winning the overall. “I’d had quite a vicious attack with it earlier in the week and it felt like it always did – leave me feeling a bit weak the next day.”
Brailsford backs Wiggins on use of drugs under TUEs
He also describes a mountain stage in the 2010 Tour de France, where he finished 23rd, “sneezing my head off, blowing snot out of my nose, unable to breathe.”
Wiggins said he had long managed the condition with a variety of treatments. “Continual medication … two Clarityns per day, one in the morning, one at night, nasal sprays, inhalers – two in the morning, two at night, eye drops as and when. I was on the maximum for over the counter products.”
Symptoms
Wiggins explained that his symptoms varied from day to day and at times the over-the-counter medication wasn’t enough. “If we were on top of a mountain it’d be completely different to if we were finishing in a town, a small village or something. You could never predict.”
Many have questioned how someone with apparently severe breathing problems could have any success at all in a sport like cycling. However, a number of the symptoms described by Wiggins would perhaps better be characterised as congestion.
“One thing I would constantly have is a blocked nose. I’d be constantly like I was full of a cold. Particularly when I was lying down, having a massage on my front, my nose would fill up and you could hear it in my voice talking afterwards. People would say, have you got a cold, you’re not ill are you? No, I’ve got hay fever, allergies. It was just a constant thing. That didn’t stop me from being able to perform and train, it was kind of … A lot of it I found was a build-up. If I was symptomatic for a long period over time I found that I really weakened off and I’d notice the effects more.”
Restricted breathing does get a mention though when he adds: “Uncontrollable sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, the urge to rub my eyes constantly, and in doing that the eyes becoming bloodshot … extreme. My breathing became restricted, like breathing through a straw at times.”
Timing
The current manufacturers’ guidelines for the use of triamcinolone state: “Patients with hay fever or pollen asthma who are not responding to pollen administration and other conventional therapy may obtain a remission of symptoms lasting throughout the pollen season after a single injection of 40mg to 100mg.”
After seeing a specialist, a corticosteroid injection was recommended for Wiggins before the 2011 Tour de France. “At that time it was like this is going to cure … This is going to go a long way towards you not having any problems for the next three weeks now,” he says.
The timing is something many have questioned. Explaining why the injection was given immediately before his target races, Wiggins said: “The problem with [the allergy] was it was unpredictable. I couldn’t say, well, this was going to happen on this day or wonder what the weather is going to … if we are going to have a hot Tour, if we’re going to have all this stuff floating around the air, that the helicopter’s chopping up from flying over.”
Performance enhancement
David Millar used Kenacort, a trade name for triamcinolone, during his career. He has argued that it should be banned during races. Wiggins says more context is needed to draw such conclusions.
Speaking about riders such as Millar and Jorg Jaksche – who has also admitted to using the drug for performance enhancement – he said:
“What doses were they taking then? Let’s have some more specifics please. When did you take it, how much did you take, how did you feel the day after when you took it? Just to put some context to this dose for this specific reason … And then what else were you taking at that time in conjunction with that? Was it just cortisone in that period? Was everyone abusing cortisone? Or was it in conjunction with EPO, with testosterone, all those other things?”
Wiggins defends drug use on BBC's Andrew Marr Show
Wiggins claims that on at least one occasion the triamcinolone injection had a negative effect on his performance. Speaking about the 2011 Tour, he said: “I actually think it was a detriment to my performance. As the first week went on I felt like I was getting weaker and weaker, I didn’t have the power. Obviously I crashed out so I will never know. I was borderline there anyway, right down probably below [the weight] that was ideal for me and I think this just tipped me over the edge.”
As for why there is no mention of his allergies and treatment in his autobiography, Wiggins said it was simply because it was something he had got used to.
He said when he’d had bad days on the bike in the past, he’d been paranoid about making excuses on the grounds that such explanations would have garnered little sympathy from people - and in 2012, the problem seemed even less relevant.
“I’d won everything that year. When I was writing the book I wasn’t sat there thinking, “I’d better bring my allergies up”. I was flying on cloud nine after dominating the sport all year. It wasn’t something that I brought to mind.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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33 comments
Suddenly cheats like Millar, Rasmussen and Jakshe have found a way to appear relavent and poeple are lapping it up! Wiggins book shouldn't really be taken as sworn testimony either, it's a book to please the newbies who have all jumped on the cycling bandwagon. As for the cortisone, he was prescribed it by a doctor, what is he meant to do? Ignore medical advice? Or just take advice from the keyboard warriors that all now appear to be asthma experts!
Not suddenly: Millar's been a (decent) co-commentator since before he retired. His experiences here are relevant and I can see a niche for him.
It does grate when he stirs the pot a bit, but, for me, nowhere near as much as, say, Jalabert, who's an unrepentant professional shit-stirrer.
It's a real shame that drugs are used in cycling albeit for whatever reasons. It's not for us to judge as we are medically unqualified to do so. It's best that is left to the professionals to decide what appropriate action to take if any such action is required.
The outcome of whatever it maybe, won't affect the majority of us that just love and enjoy cycling for health and fitness.
It is what it is.
''- No independent research has proven that any performance benefit was gained. Ex-riders seem to think so, but, as others have said, fuck knows what else they were on. I'd say the biggest performance benefit was not being a snivelling mess.''
Except wiggans said it gave him a performance boost to level the playing field. So even if science says 'no performance increase', wiggans believes there was one. And as wiggans said about Millar, we don't know what else anyone taking this drug was on, so there may be greater performance increases if you're on something else.
The more he tries to justify it now, the worse it sounds. I'd like to see the rules change, so that if you get a TUE, you can't race for a period (30 days?). So you don't get banned for two years for taking it, but whilst it's effects are still within your body, you can't race.
Dottigirl you are wrong, have a look at the Cycling weekly (see link) for his first excuse. Not such an idiot, just a bit dim.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/bradley-wiggins-wasnt-tr...
What, specificially, is wrong? I don't see anything new in that link.
To treat a long-term asthma problem. So asthm isn't even named, is it not
If I was him, I'd go about my plan to retire quietly from the road while there's still only murmurings of PED abuse, like Armstrong did. Where Armstrong messed it up was making the comeback in 2009. As long as Wiggins stays pretty quiet, and the British public keep unquestioningly and gleefully counting the gold medals, it won't go any further.
one more dip in the pool of glory that they have bathed in for so long before sure wouldn't hurt. Except this time it did, yet they can't keep themselves away from it.
It's strange that he only suffers with asthma before a grand tour.
Where do you get that information from?
Another idiot.
- The TUEs were not (primarily) for his asthma. In fact, asthma isn't even named.
- Pollen allergies, by their nature, are seasonal. Grand tours coincide with approximately the same time - spring-summer. Specifically, the named Timothy grass, prevalent across Europe, flowers from June to September, and many allergy treatments begin before the symptoms are present. Severity of seasonal allergies often varies from year to year. I get bad prickly heat. If I'm going on holiday abroad, I'll start taking antihistamines a while before I go, as they work better that way.
- He was already on max doses of five other meds. (I've been on a similar numerous regime, and it's a pain in the arse. If someone had offered me a magic bullet to relieve my symptoms and not have to faff around with a medicince cabinet of shit several times a day, I'd have snapped it up.) And, if I was going to use a one-shot treatment to treat it, I'd use it just before I would need it most.
- There's a thread here about Kenalog (trade name). It appears that it was discontinued due to side effects of leaving big holes in people. https://forums.netdoctor.co.uk/discussion/44394/hayfever-injection-kenalog
- No independent research has proven that any performance benefit was gained. Ex-riders seem to think so, but, as others have said, fuck knows what else they were on. I'd say the biggest performance benefit was not being a snivelling mess.
- I've read here and other places of people seeing Wiggins suffer from allergies, in particular using eye drops at Herne Hill. The TUEs mentione endoscopic procedures and RAST testing carried out by a consultant which also verifies that. Why not mentioned in his bio? Sometimes people want to appear stronger than they are. Sometimes people, in hindsight, forget about things which they live with for years. (I have disabilities which can incapacitate me. I still forget I can't do stuff.)
- Similarly, if Wiggins equated the injection with some kind of vaccination (against pollen), he may not think of it as an injection.
- IF a consultant falsely declared and treated a patient, it is is a matter for the BMA, not an internet jury. And Hargreaves would have been putting his whole career on the line to falsify test results and recommend an unsuitable treatment.
For me:
- There's enough evidence that he suffers from seasonal allergies, the severity of such needed several meds at the time.
- Kenalog (trade name) WAS used as a treatment for seasonal allergies for some time in the UK, and appears to have fallen out of favour due to side effects, not efficacy.
- The timing looks suspicious, but has some logic to it.
- Without the supporting documentation, there will always be doubt.
I am not a Wiggins fan, in fact, the opposite. I just hate to read ignorant shit. The information is out there, and it's not difficult to find, if you want a balanced opinion.
Here's Rigo in the 2013 Giro. Allergy season!
UranSnow.jpg
I suffer from hayfever. I had a new GP in the 80's who recommended steroidal intramuscular injections to treat it (I was affected a lot worse when I was youger). I used to have 2 injections a year as the effect lasted about 3 months; so 2 covered the pollen season for me. 4 or 5 years later I changed to a new surgery. When I went at the start of hayfever the next time I asked for the injection the new GP refused. His reasoning was that useage while very effective treating allergies (& it was. Probably the most relief for minimum treatment Ive experienced) studies had found it caused muscle wastage so he refused to treat me with the drug. Just saying.
BW has defo shot himself in the foot, but he isn't the type to let things lie.
As another said it isnt just cyclists this time that the hack shone a light on. The TUE system is open to abuse. The reducing issue numbers in cycling in recent years years would seem to indicate that it's being tightened up or another form of underground enhancement has been found. Who knows.
I would suggest that Bradley is a narcissist.
He has convinced himself that he is totally innocent. IMO
Yeah. Its the lying and hypocrisy I can't stand.
"What upset me the most was Armstrong- I thought you lying bastard"
Wiggins 2012
"I've never had an injection...."
Wiggins 2012
"Oh. Um. Apart from the banned drugs that I injected back when I won the tour etc."
Wiggins 2016
except they are not banned with a TUE.
Muppet
"You say it best when you say nothing at all!"
Wiggins ought to just let this lie. Storm in a teacup. The issues are really:
1: WADA are allowing TUEs to be exploited and so giving rise to officially sanctioned doping (sorry Brad, that's what it is).
2: TUEs are the tip of the PED iceberg. Literally, it's the doping that can be aired because it has be legitimised by the authorities, the rest is hidden under murky waters of doping doctors and ineffective testing. The truth is that athletes will do whatever they can to win. TUE's are just an enabler to that.
If I understand this correctly, the UCI appears to be responsible for managing the TUE system, not WADA:
http://www.uci.ch/clean-sport/therapeutic-use-exemptions/
Professional male road cyclists are included in the RTP (registered testing pool) and have to apply directly to the UCI for TUEs (they can't get a TUE through their national anti doping organisations).
The UCI issued a total of 13 TUEs in 2015. If the system is being widely abused, I'm puzzled why there are not a lot more TUEs being issued. Common sense would suggest that a lot of athletes would be taking advantage of a legal loophole that provides a performance advantage.
That's a good point well made. It's interesting how that number is down from 239 in 2009. But that doesn't take away from your point.
Perhaps I should read up on the specifics (in fact I'm going to check the WADA website), but my point about WADA is that they are the over-arching Anti-doping agency. They design the rules which the UCI adhere to.
If it was about the UCI then Fancy Bears would have just targeted (or provided information on cyclists) but what we see is across the board, exemptions issued by all authorities.
Apparently, Salbutamol etc. used to require a TUE, now it doesn't. That would account for some/most of the drop.
Doesn't mean we need to accept or support them when they're outed.
BW and Sky may be technically in the clear, but from my pov they've both suffered reputational damage from this business.
I'd rather watch and support elite sports men and women who indulge in good sportsmanship rather than good gamesmanship.
Sadly you'd struggle to a sportsman who gets to the starting block in that case.
I wouldn't say that Wiggins is the cleanest, but really we are talking shades of grey. I doubt there's a white knight out there and that is Fancy Bear's point. Under the current situation we are not seeing athletes who are whiter than white.
Yeah... I'd prefer to pursue an idealistic view of the sport than a jaded one though. It's the hypocrasy of BW/Sky I find disgusting.
I have more respect for Quintana finish third in TdF suffering from hayfever than Wiggins winning it with "just in case" TUE injections, while saying he was in rude health and all the zero tolerance Sky bollocks.
"Lying cheat.... fucking scumbag"
Something to dwell on, is that we are commenting on someone's medication use and motivations from information that has been taken (with a lack of context) from someone's stolen personal medical records.
First of all, how would any one of us feel about a small part of our personal medical records being dissected in public after some scumbag had stolen and then published them. Secondly, it's this lack of context that is part of the reason that these records are, and should remain, private.
We're questoning BW's morality and ethics (I can't help but think that his 'no needles' claim and these relevations put him in a very bad light), but the very vehicle that we are using to query his claims and question his morality is well below any decent threshold of morality in itself.
He who is without sin and all that....
"I have never had an injection"
He has zero credibility. He is a liar. I used to admire him so much. Now I just think of him as a dirty, lying, scumbag cheat.
Lance Armstrong has more credibilty than this fucking cheat.
you sure you're not the one on drugs?
It really seems that if he'd been open about it at the time(s) (even though he didnt have to be), not had the TUE's always before a big race (a few TUE's at random other times during the summer would have helped his case now), and not written about 'no needles' in his book, then this would all be about nothing. Now I'm left wondering what else was going on. Wiggins himself said that the drug gave him a performance boost, but it was okay, as it was just bringing him back up to where he should have been. And if it wasnt Britains favourite cycling son, and a Russian or Spanish rider instead, then they'd be far more critical articles about this whole affair.
As Sir Wiggins says- what else was Millar on? I bet it would be pretty hard to pinpoint what drugs have what effect at what time.
What pint of ale made you the most drunk, last time you had a few?
It's possible to believe both of them. Millar just says it should be banned because of its side effects. Wiggins says he took it because of medical need. Many of us take caffeine gels because we think it gives us a boost at the end of a long ride. I know others who take their salbutamol inhaler before and during a ride as a preventative and for peace of mind because an asthma attack on the bike is really ugly, knowing that it also gives them a breathing advantage. There's no evidence that salbutamol will act as a preventative. Are these people drug cheats? Nope. They're using drugs that have been approved for them in the manner that has been approved. (salbutamol there's no restriction on how or when you use it). So, you're a pro cyclist and you have hayfever, you're already doing your best to control it with otc remedies, but with the big race tomorrow, and you've been trying to control this thing all week, what do you do? Legally use the restricted drug that works most effectively which may have a performance advantage (there's no direct evidence it will have one for you), or do you take the drug that works slightly less effectively that people believe doesn't have a performance advantage? Anyone who has taken a couple of ibuprofen before a ride should think on that carefully.
Personally I think BW is being 95% truthful with a dusting of 5% BS
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