A day after professing his desire for total transparency, Bradley Wiggins said he has been advised against going all out to prove he is not a drugs cheat.
Wiggins has been leading the Tour de France since teammate Chris Froome cruised past defending yellow jersey champion Cadel Evans to win stage seven at the end of the steep climb to La Planche Des Belles Filles in the Vosges.
A week later and after having faced much scrutiny as the leader of the world’s biggest bike race, Wiggins looks primed to become Britain’s first Tour de France champion.
But a day after asking “what more can I do?” to prove his current success is down to bread and water, Wiggins said he had been advised against making his blood passport public.
All professional cyclists must be in the program run by the International Cycling Union (UCI), whose aim is to catch cheats by detecting fluctuations in tell-tale key parameters in blood taken at regular intervals.
Wiggins believes publishing results would cause confusion.
“I did it in 2009 and people said I was doped, so I think whatever you do with the passport thing, I think it’s a no-win situation,” Wiggins said at the end of the 13th stage on Saturday.
In 2009, Wiggins claimed his best result ever on the race when he finished fourth riding for Garmin, a team who regularly profess their commitment to drugs-free sport.
Now at Sky, Wiggins says he has been advised against a repeat by “doctors in the team”.
“They’ve said to me that the blood passport isn’t sort of clear cut doping or not doping. There’s so many variables in it.”
Sky’s domination has prompted some commentators to compare them to the dominant US Postal team once headed by Lance Armstrong, the seven-time champion who faces serious doping charges in the United States.
In some sections of the French press, Sky have even been dubbed ‘UK Postal’.
Wiggins believes his only chance at proving the doubters wrong is continuing to pass doping tests.
“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been tested this week, blood and urine. It’s the more we do that, the better our sport is becoming.”
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