Doping

“The thing with doping is that there is a black and a white,” he says. ‘Did the team [Sky] cross into the black? No, in my opinion. They didn’t dope, but there is a grey area. The use of painkillers falls into that grey area. Tramadol falls into that grey area."

Quite frankly most of cycling and professional sport fall into that grey area. Whether a drug is banned or not is quite arbitrary, hence why Sharapova got pinged for a drug she had been using for years. But he flat out says Sky isn't doping.

As for tramadol the use of it in-competition is well-documented and widespread. A lot of riders carry a finish bottle, usually a mixture of painkillers and caffeine tablets. Will it give you an edge at the sharp end of the race? Probably, but the bottom line until such practises are banned then nobodies done anything wrong.