Doping

One thing I hadn't understood until the last couple of days is that no TUE is needed for use of triamcinolone acetonide outside of competition. If the drug has the claimed performance enhancing properties, I find that amazing. A couple of other thoughts:

• The anonymous source refers to other Sky riders using triamcinolone in 2012 outside of competition. I wonder who they were? It's hard to imagine Froome wasn't one of them.
  
• Landis is arguing that Wiggins was only able to become lean enough to win the tour through use of triamcinolone. If true, was he using when he finished fourth in 2009 at Garmin? In addition, Wiggins looked incredibly lean through the whole 2012 season, winning Paris Nice, Romandie and the Dauphine before the Tour. All those races predate the TUE / use of triamcinolone in competition.
  
• I question the accounts of riders like Millar as to the performance enhancing properties of triamcinolone. He was using it in concert with EPO, and other drugs. How can you identify what performance enhancement is attributable to which drug? Perhaps there is a major synergistic effect?
  
  

The known facts are:

• Wiggins had a medical history of allergies and asthma.
  
• Wiggins legitimately applied for and received a TUE for prophylactic use of a drug.
  
• Wiggins has a record of performing exceptionally in stage races when not using this drug as a prophylactic.
  
• There are no research studies that demonstrate this drug has a performance enhancing effect. In fact, contra the opinion of some known former dopers, doctors have suggested the drug used in isolation is likely to be detrimental to performance.
  
  

Who stands to benefit by feeding the controversy, and obscuring these facts from the public narrative? I certainly noticed that this report was released by the DCMS select committee at the same time as the Leveson inquiry was shelved.