Former Olympic cyclist Nicole Cooke raises accusations of widespread doping and sexism within cycling

Former Olympic and world champion cyclist Nicole Cooke has issued a damning attack on British Cycling and Team Sky, condemning the governing bodies for their lack of accountability, sexism, and failure to fight the abuse of performance enhancing drugs (PEDSs) within the sport.

Cooke, 33, presented written evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Tuesday morning as part of the on-going inquiry into combating doping in sport.

The 2008 Gold Olympic medallist notably identified two main ‘problems’ prevalent within cycling, summarising that it is “a sport run by men, for me”, and, in relation to the doping scandal which continues to rock the sport, stated that the “wrong people [have been] fighting the wrong war, in the wrong way, with the wrong tools”.

Cooke also made the remarkable claim that she had been encouraged as a 19-year-old to dope by two members of her own British team. “At the age of 19 I was the only Brit on my team in Italy and I was encouraged by two members of the management of my team to dope,” she said.

This follows last month’s committee session in which Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford, British Cycling president Bob Howden and former GB cycling team technical director Shane Sutton all faced questions regarding therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) and allegations of wrongdoing.

After Brailsford and Sutton were subject to immense scrutiny, Cooke’s latest comments offer further perspective to an unseen side to the world of cycling which, so the 33-year-old claims, has fostered widespread doping and sexism.

Writing about the jiffy bag containing medication that was transported by Simon Cope, British Cycling women’s team manager, to Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné, Cooke said: “Cope was doing what he was told to do. Shane Sutton states he approved Cope’s trip with the jiffy bag. Nobody in the organisation anywhere would have asked the question – hasn’t Cope got another job to do?”

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Cooke demanded to know why Cope, whose “salary is paid out of the public purse”, was instructed by his managers to serve as a courier for Wiggins and spend “some weeks riding a moped in front of him as part of a training regimen”, rather than carrying out his responsibilities for the women’s team.

Beyond the recent controversy surrounding the infamous ‘jiffy bag’, Cooke also recounted her own exposures to sexism, remarking that “very little was ever done to support female road riders during my career”.

She said: “At times odd riders would be supported for a period, while they were 'in favour' but mostly, that support was only ever transient.”

In 2008, according to Cooke, “plans were in place for the male only Team Sky that would use a variety of BC Lottery funded staff in dual roles.” Overseen by Dave Brailsford and others, the project was designated as “male only” and “no successful appeal that it should be a male and female team was possible”. It was “run exclusively by men, exclusively for men,” Cooke said.

Cooke also recounted an incident at the 2008 World Championships, which came directly after her Olympic road race victory in Beijing. Cooke reports that British Cycling had “downgraded” its preparation for the 2008 Worlds as there was “no male rider who could effectively challenge for a World title”.

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Cooke had asked for a skinsuit to use for the race, but was told that one was not available.

“Expecting this, I had brought to the championships my skin suit from the year before. Dave Brailsford was insistent that I could not wear it as it did not feature the logo of the new Sponsor Sky. Eventually a compromise was reached on the eve of the race, in which Emma Pooley, who had a needle and thread with her, cut out the Sky logo of the jersey and sewed it onto my old skinsuit.

“I won the World Title and became the first person, male or female, to be World and Olympic road race champion in the same year.”

“The facts are they did nothing for the women.”

Cooke added that ahead of British Cycling's programme for the World Championships in 2011 and London 2012, she was forced to fund her own flights to and accommodation in Australia as part of the training plan.

On the uneven treatment of male and female riders, Cooke said: “This un-equitable and discriminatory distribution of resource was only possible due to the failure of UK Sport to hold the senior management of BC to account.

“Throughout my whole career, BC senior management and the Board could not have made it more clear to those they directed, that men and the actions and achievements of men, were all that mattered. This was obvious to all observers of the sport but UK Sport just stood by, watched and approved.”

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With regards to the issues of doping within the sport, Cooke said she became immediately aware of the endemic use of PEDs in her first full season in 2002 and throughout her career presented evidence of drug abuse to UK Anti-Doping on two occasions, with no satisfactory outcome.

“In the first case they stated they would not do anything with my evidence. On the second they took no notes during the meeting and informed me I could not be given any information of any sort as to how they might process the evidence I gave them.”

As for her experience as a 19-year-old when she was encouraged to dope, Cooke revealed that she had passed the information onto the forerunner of UKAD but nothing was done.

The CMS committee has been investigating doping in sport ever since 2015, when The Sunday Times published a series of reports about world athletics governing body the IAAF's apparent failure to follow up on years of suspicious blood tests by leading athletes.

Since then the committee has heard evidence from IAAF president Lord Coe, UKAD chairman David Kenworthy and WADA president Sir Craig Reedie, among others.