Jack Bobridge used 'cycling code' to sell ecstasy pills, court hears
"Going to the ergo" allegedly meant going to Bobridge's gym to pick up drugs
Jack Bobridge used "cycling code" to organise the sale of hundreds of ecstasy pills, a court has been told, as the Olympian's trial got underway this week.
Bobridge was charged two years ago with drug dealing and today appeared in the Western Australian District Court accused of being involved in the supply of ecstasy between March and July 2017.
The jury were told that Bobridge supplied the drugs to former champion cyclist Alex McGregor, with McGregor selling an undercover policeman 10 pills in a Perth bar and then becoming a focus of "Operation Inception".
The policeman paid $300 for the drugs and then stayed in contact with McGregor, purchasing pills three more times over the next three months.
McGregor is a self-confessed drug user and was a witness at Bobridge's trial today, with Bobridge's lawyer declaring McGregor "a liar".
"Mr Bobridge never supplied drugs to McGregor, ever," Bobridge's lawyer said. "Mr McGregor is a liar, he has done a deal with the prosecution and as a result of that deal has got 40 per cent off his sentence, so he's got a great deal at stake."
Speaking as a witness, McGregor said he met Bobridge in 2014 through cycling, and that their relationship progressed to becoming friends and "then we turned into selling drugs together. It pretty much went to the extreme".
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McGregor went on to say he was drinking in the early hours one night in March 2017 with Bobridge when the pair made a "deal" that McGregor would sell ecstasy pills supplied by Bobridge to people he knew in the clubbing scene in Perth.
Over the next few months McGregor would go to Bobridge's cycling studio and pick up bags of pills, eventually dealing in such quantities that it was easier to communicate using "cycling code" on a messenger app.
If McGregor said "going to the ergo" that meant he was going to Bobridge's gym to pick up drugs. He'd then ask for a "30-day programme" which mean he wanted 30 pills.
McGregor would then go to a coffee shop next to the cycling shop where Bobridge worked to get an empty coffee cup which he would fill with money and hand over to Bobridge.
"I'd make it look like I was buying him a coffee, when I was really paying him," McGregor said.
Bobridge has pleaded not guilty to four counts of supplying MDMA and McGregor will continue to give evidence as the trial continues.
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.