UK Anti-Doping investigators have met with British Cycling as the crisis which has engulfed the sport reached the home of the national governing body, which it shares with Team Sky.
Two Ukad officials on Friday travelled to the Manchester Velodrome, known as the ‘Medal Factory’ as the place where the successes of the last three Olympic Games were made.
Ukad would not comment further to “protect the integrity of the investigation” and would not disclose whether the meeting was pre-arranged or the result of an unannounced visit.
British Cycling and Team Sky is cooperating with Ukad’s investigation into “allegations of wrongdoing within cycling”; on Thursday evening it was one solitary claim being investigated, but now there is more than one.
The initial Ukad announcement came as the Daily Mail reported the anti-doping authority is investigating Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins over the contents of a medical package, allegedly delivered to Team Sky in France on June 12th, 2011. The newspaper reported that Ukad is looking at what that contained.
It is understood that Wiggins and his representatives have received no notification from Ukad and believe the 36-year-old is not a subject of the investigation.
Five-time Olympic champion Wiggins, Britain’s first Tour de France winner in 2012, said in a statement on Saturday: “I welcome this investigation.”
Team Sky are “confident there has been no wrongdoing” and had asked British Cycling to contact Ukad.
British Cycling said it is “cooperating fully”.
There is no timescale for Ukad investigations. And Ukad did not go into any detail about the allegations and mentioned no names.
But concerns on Thursday were raised about the availability of controversial and powerful painkiller Tramadol among the Great Britain team at the 2012 Road Cycling World Championships.
Tramadol is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s monitoring list, with concerns over its side effects.