Skyfall #4: British Cycling's nandrolone mystery before London 2012 Olympics

Events around an anomalous drug test ahead of the London Games led to a WADA probe in 2021 and leave British Cycling with unanswered ethical questions to this day

Operation Echo and Operation Blackout sound like they might have been US Special Forces missions into some troublesome parts of the planet in a post-9/11 world.

In fact, Operation Echo began in March 2021, and was conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It looked into potential historic doping and cover-ups at British Cycling (BC) before London 2012, with BC aided and abetted back then by individuals at the UK anti-doping agency, UKAD. 

‘Echo’ began because of an investigation I conducted for my newspaper, and WADA’s ‘Intelligence and Investigations Department’ then spent seven months looking at it.

Operation Blackout, meanwhile, was the codename for an internal but ineffective probe done by UKAD into two whistleblower letters received in 2018, alleging there had been a doping coach working in British Cycling, also around the time of the London 2012 Olympics.

Operation Echo (available here) concluded that British Cycling had broken WADA rules by conducting secret internal doping tests using a non-accredited lab. It also concluded Operation Blackout was ineffective.

WADA duly censured UKAD and British Cycling in late 2021, although concluded that the culture of British Cycling by then was hugely different to the suspicious culture before 2012, and the personnel running cycling in 2021 (and indeed running UKAD) were by then wholly different.

This fourth episode of the ‘Skyfall’ series will focus on Operation Echo and Operation Blackout and the stories behind those stories, giving you new details for the first time.

It is worth reiterating that all the key players involved in Britain’s cycling miracle of the late Noughties and beyond were also key figures at Team Sky, a team who dominated Grand Tour cycling and the Tour de France for years from 2012. Those key people were Dave Brailsford, Shane Sutton, Steve Peters and Dr Richard Freeman, plus assorted riders.

The first part of the series was published last Tuesday: 'Living a lie' - exposing the dark underbelly of British cycling's golden age. 

Part two was last Wednesday: Injections at Windermere, drugs in the fridge, and lies about coming clean. 

Part three was published on Friday: Drugs at the TdF, backstabbing, lies, cover-ups, omertà. 

Today’s piece will recap what I reported in 2021 (below) about secret drug testing before London 2012. And along the way I’ll tell you who precisely was involved in that episode and how everyone involved tried to dodge responsibility and throw other colleagues under a bus.

Edifying, it is not.