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news
Michael Barry (CC SA licensed image by www.instants-cyclistes.fr:Flickr)Team Sky’s approach to drugs “not ethical” says former rider Michael Barry
Retired professional cyclist Michael Barry believes Team Sky were “not ethical” in terms of administering medication to riders when he was with them. While he does not think the team was engaged in doping, he says that it did fall into a “grey area,” as do other teams because of the pressure to get results.
Barry, aged 41, announced his retirement from professional cycling in September 2012. The following month, he was banned for six months by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testifying in its investigation of doping at the United States Postal Service (USPS) team.
He admitted doping while riding with the team from 2002 to 2006. While his spell there coincided with four of Armstrong’s seven Tour de France wins, Barry only made his debut in the race in 2010 after joining Team Sky.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Barry said he had raised concerns with Team Sky’s management about younger riders being given sleeping pills by medical staff as well as the controversial pain-killer Tramadol, which is not banned.
He said: “The thing with doping is that there is a black and a white,” he says. ‘Did the team cross into the black? No, in my opinion. They didn’t dope, but there is a grey area. The use of painkillers falls into that grey area. Tramadol falls into that grey area.
“I loved my time with the team, I had a great experience there. But, ethically, I really started questioning the use of the Tramadol, and the sleeping pills, especially when you see the younger riders using this stuff heavily. If we went into a medical clinic and just asked their GP, they probably wouldn’t give these out. And that is not ethical.”
Barry first claimed he had used Tramadol, which can cause drowsiness and is blamed for crashes within the peloton, when racing with Team Sky in an interview with The Times in April 2014.
> Team Sky says its riders are not given painkiller Tramadol and it should be banned
At the time, Sky said that the drug had not been given to members of the team “for the past two seasons” (ie from 2012 onwards) and that it believed it should be banned.
Barry told Telegraph Sport that a passage in his 2014 book, Shadows On The Road, about a conversation with a doctor but which made no reference to the team in question was in fact about Sky. In his book, he wrote:
I asked if one doctor would ever give the pill [Tramadol] to a patient under similar circumstances in an office setting. He said no. I asked if he was concerned about what would happen if a rider crashed and it was found he had a drug in his body which normally came with a warning that it should not be consumed while operating a vehicle. He was silent.
I asked how he would feel if insurance wouldn’t cover a rider who had crashed with the drug in his system. He was silent. I asked how he would feel if that rider died. Silence, again. I suggested that the team should maintain an inventory of the drugs given out at each race and pass it along to the doctor at the next race. To my knowledge, that was never done.
His revelation comes at a time when Team Sky are the subject of a UK Anti-Doping probe with past and present staff including Sir Dave Brailsford also called to testify before the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport.
In December, Brailsford told MPs that a Jiffy Bag couriered out to former Sky doctor Richard Freeman at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné contained the decongestant Fluimucil, which is not banned, for use by Sir Bradley Wiggins.
Many remain unconvinced by his explanation, and the select committee has invited Freeman and Simon Cope – the then British Cycling employee who delivered the package – to appear before it.
> Former Team Sky doctor and Sir Bradley Wiggins Jiffy Bag courier summoned to testify before MPs
Barry said that while he was unable to comment on what the Jiffy Bag might have contained, he was surprised at the episode.
“They should have been clearer about it, so I’m not surprised by the scrutiny. But the team is big. There is a lot of stuff going on, and I wasn’t at the race.
“The riders have personal relationships with the doctors and the management. I didn’t know what other guys were ingesting and what they weren’t, or what treatments they were getting. By that stage of my career, I had decided to race on my own terms.”
Barry also told Telegraph Sport that he believed that ethical issues were not confined to Team Sky and were a reflection of the way the sport operates.
“What this has highlighted is not just a ‘doping’ issue,” he said. “It is a health issue. Taking care of athletes should be a team’s priority.
“Instead everyone involved has a ‘bias’, from the mechanics to the team directeurs – everybody’s jobs are reliant on the athletes’ performances, so priorities are skewed, and people will do whatever they can to gain an edge, whether pharmaceutical or technological.
“But this wasn’t just a problem at Sky,” he added. “It’s a problem for the sport in general.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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34 comments
Ah, I remember the good ole days of EPO - riders would actually attack on a climb
As already said, there is cheating, and there is insulting peoples moral compass.
Everything we are talking about with Sky is the latter.
And thats the diffrence between postal and Sky. Postal had smoking guns everywhere, they had people providing statements that banned drugs were being taken. We had proof that riders were working with banned doctors.
Ultimtely they were found out.
Sky coverage is focused on TUE manipulation, or the use of legal prescription drugs. A different thing altogether.
I can see the arguments...
1. it was all but cheating, it was ethically wrong
2. if this is what we know about, what MUST they have being doing behind the scenes.
My response is...
1. but it wasn't cheating. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but like any sport, you look at the rules and then play them to the max if you want to succeed.
2. if there was more, we'd know... people would know and people would be muttering about it. There is nothing more... as yet... the longer this goes on, the more likely it is that there is nothing going on.
If you want an ethical story... look at Garmin. How many of those who apparently turned a corner and joined the team have subsequently been banned for a further discretion? Its more than one.
Its the 'tax evasion / tax avoidance' argument.
The latter is legal and, I have seen argued that it is the responsibility of a company to reduce its tax burden as much as possible for its shareholders but can be argued that it is against the social contract and amoral, while the former is clearly illegal.
TUE's are a legal loophole that needs to be rectified.
A question I've seen asked elsewhere is if an athlete needs anti asthma drugs due to a flare up prior to a race, should they really be entering that race at all?
"Cheating is bad. Drugs are bad, mkay? But if you ever did both then if you talk about it you are scum"
The logic in some of these comments is dissonance at best.
If you want the truth to out, then you have to accept it whereever it comes from, and create an environment that people can speak out about it at the the moment it is happening around them, not after their career has ended and they no longer fear retribution.
An ex-Sky rider has basically come out and said "well yes, we were cheating",
I missed that - an ex cheat said he used to ride for Sky and didn't see anything that was cheating.
The rest happened in your tiny mind!
This whole 'grey area' appears absolute nonsense, there are rules, they get broken or not. Anything up to a break is rubbish.
Tramadol and sleeping pills seriously this is not exactly blood transfusions is it, honestly not bothered about either of these. If I'm wrong and people are 'outraged' at the use of pain killers and sleeping tabs, then where does it stop, consider your everyday protein shake, protein is fundamental muscle growth and blood etc.. protein powder is a shortcut to eating properly and healthily, so to my eyes popping the odd lorazepam and getting a good nights sleep would be way down the list..
No, grey areas are nonsense, rules are the only thing which should be looked at in this whole debacle. Lobby the UCI, not one team. Who is doing all this lobbying, what is their interest?
Does he have a book coming out?
I too would like to add my disgust at convicted dopers flinging mud at others. Landis cheated his whole career and is a convicted doper. He shouldn't be given any platform or attention.
I have no idea if USPS are clean or not, but the succession of convicted dopers coming out and flinging mud is getting tiring.
/me adjusts his yellow wristband
Let's face it if you want to be an the top of your sport you need to be taking something to get there. When money and success are on offer people will do what needs to be done.
For some reason we think our British hero's are immune. Don't get me started on Mo and Paula Radcliffe
Greg Rutherford is from Bedford, there's drugs in the water down there*
I can sit on the fence here, I agree that people should be given the right to speak to help clean it up, but seriously, have some credibilty. His views on using an over the counter painkiller are really insignificant.
In fact it merely adds fuel to the defence, Jackson above may want to cast scorn on our greatest Olympian and the first Britain to win the TDF because he had a puff of an inhaler, but the more non-stories the stronger the case for the defence!
* Allegedly
Tramadol isn't an over the counter painkiller.
And Wiggins didn't have a fake TUE to use an inhaler, it was to charge up with injectable corticosteroids, the same stuff Armstrong used. But we shouldn't question him because "he's our greatest Olympian" and "he won".
An ex-Sky rider has basically come out and said "well yes, we were cheating", yet we still have a load of British fanboys to tell him that he's wrong.
Don't let the facts to get in the way of a good bit of self-righteous chest-beating and witch-burning now, will you.
I'm certainly no fanboy but Brad's TUEs were done within the rules. Whether it is ethically acceptable is a different proposition with a variety of possible answers but if try running pro sport that way and you won't last 5 minutes.
Any chance people could at least attempt to learn some history about pro cycling before they comment on threads like this?
What sky have been accused of is laughably minor compared to the very real doping going back to at least the 1920's, very possibly a lot earlier.
I love the appeal to pro cycling history to convince us that the strongest Tour team is squeaky clean. When dodgy stories start pouring out about the top team, in 100% of cases it has transpired that they were cheating.
I took it to mean the exact opposite - that if you knew anything about pro cycling then you'd know the idea of an even remotely clean team is pure fantasy!
Ok, well tell that to Wiggins' peers in the peloton who have largely condemned his cheating, and to the teams that did sign up to and race under the Movement for Credible Cycling's rules when Team Sky refused.
hmm, I think it would be easier to confirm what StoopidUserName really meant by simply waiting till tomorrow
I took it as a usual Sky defencewhinge - give Sky a free ride because they're not as bad as other teams have been: 'Stop being so nasty about Sky cos ooh, oooh: US Postal!'.
Why go back to the 1920s when the pinnacle of cheating (blood from someone else, steroid/EPO cocktails and a proven motor) is right on our doorstep? Unless you've got a thing for the clothes, cars and Tommy guns - and frankly, who hasn't?
''I have no doubts that Sky are absolutely playing at the upper end of the grey spectrum when it comes to rider prep. Why woyldn't they be/ The important thing is that they stay in the rules... if not and they get caught... more fool them.''
Every additional bit of information on Sky that comes out, only shows how they've done another grey thing. When is it going to stop? What'll we hear about them doing next? The only fact we know, is that their key riders didnt fail tests. There's no independent information on what the riders are doing.
The system is broken. Teams shouldnt employ doctors, the doctors should be UCI supplied and paid (and rotated from team to team every few seasons). Any and all medication taken by the riders should be supplied by the doctors. If you're found to have so much as an asprin in your toilet bag that the doctor didnt give you, then you're out.
The current system is a joke. Are the top riders the ''best'', or are they the ones pushing further into the Grey Area?
My sentiments are as above....
I know this harks back to the whole 'spitting in the soup' mantra, and I apologise for that, but I can't help but feel miffed at that generation of US / Canadian riders.
They came to Europe, saw what was going on, then thought 'hell I can do that too... actually I can do that more!'. they then did doping turned up to 11, and then when they were done making cash and living the dream, the go and shit in the nest.
As Simon says, if this was such a problem for him, why stay at postal for so long. If it was a problem for him at Sky, why not leave, join Garmin.
I have no doubts that Sky are absolutely playing at the upper end of the grey spectrum when it comes to rider prep. Why woyldn't they be/ The important thing is that they stay in the rules... if not and they get caught... more fool them.
Simply leaving and joining another team is not as simple as it sounds, the competition for pro contracts is fierce and we forget that for these men, racing is their means of living, its a job, they have to earn money and support themselves. Pro tour contracts are not a secure means to a wage in the short or long term and that needs to change in order for riders to feel like they can ride their own rules without fear of being out of a job. Of course I am not supporting doping in favour of maintaining a contract, but riders who testify and speak out are in a minority and we rely upon them to change the status quo. We amateurs cannot imagine the all consuming pressure to perform that professionals go through every day. How many times have we seen something we dont agree with and just kept quiet to avoid trouble - the current political climate is example enough.
@michaelibarry cheated his WHOLE CAREER with us postal then T mobile . He should not be given ANY platform - voice or media attention
I disagree, it's only when people come out and say these things that measures can be taken to clean up the mess.
Occasionally you get articles on here from former bike thieves saying how they used to nick bikes - that info is very useful in preventing further thefts. Or do you think that because that thief (however reformed) is a criminal they should never be given any sort of platform to say anything again?
Quite right: someone said something less than glowing about Sky or British Cycling. Shut it down, nothing to see here.
Let's all live in fucking Trumpton.
Camberwick Green was better.
I agree.
But if it bothered him so much why has he waited until now to mention it?
Yeah, but in the US of A you grass up the top man, plea bargain for a minimal punishment then wait for the compensation to roll in.
I'm not sure ethics come into ANY proffesional sport. There are rules. You either break them (cheat) or you don't. Grey doesn't enter into it.
Greg Rutherford, did well in an era when there were no great long-jumpers. He won everything he could, and was clearly gutted to loose last summer.
Oh, you wanted a cyclist...?
Show me a competitor in any sport who doesn't bump right up against the letter of the rules and I'll show you a runner-up at best.
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