Team Sky admits to previously buying Fluimucil 160 miles from Dauphiné finish

It has been revealed that Team Sky had previously bought Fluimucil from a Swiss pharmacy just 160 miles from the finish of the final stage of the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné, raising questions over why they did not use the same pharmacy for the Fluimucil delivered to Bradley Wiggins after that race.

The team instead chose to use a British Cycling (opens in new tab) coach to deliver a package apparently containing the decongestant from Manchester to the French Alps, where it was delivered to Wiggins and team doctor Richard Freeman

In response to written questions from the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport committee Damian Collins MP, Team Sky said that Dr Freeman had purchased Fluimucil from a pharmacy in Yverdon, Switzerland in April 2011, a three hour drive from La Toussuire, the location of the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné where the package was delivered.

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Collins said it was increasingly unclear why Sky had chosen to made BC coach deliver the package from Manchester to Geneva, when they had purchased Fluimucil relatively nearby just three months previously.

"It makes it even less clear now why the package had to be collected from Manchester and flown out from the UK when we now know it was being sourced from a Swiss pharmacy just two or three hours’ drive away," Collins told The Times (opens in new tab).

"The more we know about the package, the less sense any of it makes."

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Team Sky had previously said that Dr Freeman could not have purchased Fluimucil from a French pharmacy because he did not have prescription rights in the country, and clarified that to say that the particular form of Fluimucil that the team uses is not "to Team Sky's knowledge" available to purchase in France.

They also said that the drug was typically ordered from a pharmacy in Munich, with any excess supplies being stored by British Cycling in Manchester.