Wiggins publishes blood tests

Bradley Wiggins has released his blood tests from the Tour de France in a bid to crush any doubts over his fourth-place finish.

The triple Olympic gold-medallist exceeded all expectations as he equalled the best finish by a Briton in the history of cycling's most prestigious event.

Wiggins' team Garmin-Slipstream today released his blood profile from the whole of 2009, including the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, plus the first half of 2008.

Jonathan Vaughters, chief executive of Slipstream Sports, said: "Brad is an exceptionally talented athlete and it was great to see him do so well in the Tour de France.

"He's always been an outspoken advocate of clean cycling. He requested that we release his results after the Tour and his decision makes me and the entire team proud."

A statement from Garmin-Slipstream concludes that analysis of the three graphs posted on the team's website "indicate no evidence of blood manipulation".

Wiggins announced during the Tour de France he wanted to release his blood passport to prove that an athlete can be competitive in the race without doping.

He told Press Association Sport earlier this week: "I don't want there to be any suspicion or doubt that what I did was natural. I have nothing to hide and I want this transparency.

"If more people did that, fans would have a lot more respect for our achievements.

"British Cycling have all my blood tests results from the age of 19 and I might even release everything from the last 10 years."

The key figure in the data provided by Garmin-Slipstream is called the Off Score, which is regarded as the reference point used for assessing an athlete's blood profile.

The number is calculated from the relationship between haemoglobin levels and the percentage of immature blood cells in the sample.

The maximum permitted Off Score is 134 and during the Tour de France Wiggins only once touched above a reading of 95.

The Garmin-Slipstream explanation into the statistics noted: "Most importantly, the trend during the 2009 Giro d'Italia and the 2009 Tour de France was downward, indicating a drop in blood parameters over the course of each race."

Wiggins said today he is in the process of "getting together all tests taken from 2003-2008".

UK Sport, the organisation which oversees the fight against drugs in British sport, welcomed Wiggins' decision to publish his blood passport.

Spokesman Russell Langley said: "We encourage as much openness as possible. We want athletes to celebrate the fact they are competing drug-free and they are achieving great things as clean athletes. It is something sports people should be proud of.

"We fully support Bradley's move and the motives behind it. It is a positive message to send out there."

UK Sport believe the likes of Wiggins are acting as role models and leading a cultural change within cycling and the Tour de France.

"It is symptomatic of a real shift in culture in cycling over the past couple of years," Langley continued.

"We noticed it when the Tour de France was in London a couple of years ago. Their attitude and approach to anti-doping was fantastic to see.

"They appreciated they had a sport and in the Tour de France an event which had problems and a stigma attached to it.

"They have gone to great lengths and invested a lot of money in trying to change that.

"It is a real cultural shift and you have a lot of riders like Bradley who have come into the Tour and into road cycling who are acting as role models.

"We are quite well blessed over here with the likes of David Millar, who has seen the other side of it but has come back and is a proactive anti-doping campaigner.

"The more people like that in cycling, the less doping is tolerated and I think we have seen that in in this year's Tour de France."