Shane Sutton claims of common use of TUEs to ‘find gains’ upset British cyclists

British cyclists are disturbed that their former technical director Shane Sutton considered therapeutic use exemptions an acceptable way for athletes to find a marginal gain in their ability to compete.

Jody Cundy said he believed Sir Bradley Wiggins’s name had been “muddied” with the revelation that he had obtained therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), in effect a doctor’s note to permit banned substances to be taken for the legitimate treatment of a medical condition, on three occasions. They allowed Wiggins to take the corticosteroid Kenacort, allegedly a performance enhancing substance, before the biggest road races of his career, including his 2012 Tour de France victory.

Sutton, who was technical director at British Cycling and remains a consultant for Team Sky, said it was common a few years ago for athletes to use TUEs to “find gains” if they had a minor injury which permitted them to apply for one.

“If you have an athlete who is 95% ready and that little 5% niggle or injury that is troubling him, if you can get that TUE to get him to 100%, yeah of course you would in them days,” the Australian coach said in a BBC documentary, adding: “You definitely don’t cross the line and that’s something we’ve never done.”

It is not clear if Sutton was referring specifically to Wiggins but Cundy, a seven‑times Paralympic champion in swimming and cycling, said he felt those comments would tarnish Wiggins’s reputation. “Shane just tells it as it is so that’s exactly what he said and that’s how it will have been perceived,” Cundy said.

Asked if he was referring to Wiggins, Cundy said: “I don’t care who it is, if they are fiddling the system they are cheating, I can’t stand cheats. It annoys the hell out of me because you’re doing something to beat somebody without having to put in the same effort.

“So, whether it be GB riders or other nations, to see people who are working the system is disheartening. To know there are people that do that 100% but then have extra things going on in the background, because they’ve got a signed piece of paper saying they can take X, Y and Z and whatever drug. If that’s the attitude people are taking to medical things then it’s a good job he [Sutton] has gone.”

One of Britain’s best young riders Katie Archibald, an Olympic champion in the team pursuit, said she did not want to believe Sutton’s suggestion that the TUE system had been exploited. “That sounds outrageous and it is something that I struggle to believe has been true practice,” she said. “I naively want to hope that there’s been some sort of manipulation or mistranslation. That’s completely against the ethics of the sport.”

As British Cycling strives to rescue its reputation after 18 months of allegations of mismanagement, bullying and discrimination, the 23-year-old said it was another blow. “Attaching a term like ‘marginal gains’ to that sort of practice is also quite distressing,” she said, “because it’s almost a trademark British Cycling phrase, isn’t it? Certainly nobody in my squad would attach that practice to the phrase marginal gains.”

British Cycling’s chief executive, Julie Harrington, said no elite British Cycling riders currently had TUEs. “I was really disappointed [by Sutton’s comments],” she said. “When people are using language around TUEs they need to be very mindful of the effect that could have on the public’s perception and the athletes’ reputation.

“They are issued on medical grounds. Not on performance grounds. As a national governing body our own medics have not supported any applications for our current GB athletes.”