Courier of Team Sky package has no idea of its contents

The Daily Mail last week reported that UK Anti-Doping was investigating Team Sky and Sir Bradley Wiggins over the contents of a package allegedly delivered by British Cycling women's team manager Simon Cope to Team Sky at the conclusion of the Criterium du Dauphine stage race in France on June 12, 2011.

Press Association Sport understands that Wiggins and his representatives have received no notification from UKAD and believe the 36-year-old is not a subject of the investigation.

Wiggins on Saturday welcomed the UKAD investigation, while British Cycling and Team Sky say they are co-operating.

Brailsford had reportedly been asked to explain by the Daily Mail why Cope was in France on June 12, 2011 and the newspaper reported that Brailsford said Cope was there to see Emma Pooley.

But Pooley was actually racing in the Basque Country in Spain on that date, finishing fourth in the Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira stage race.

Cope, now a sporting director for Team Wiggins, said he was asked to deliver a package to Dr Richard Freeman, then the Team Sky doctor and now British Cycling team doctor.

Cope told cyclingnews.com: "It was just an envelope, a Jiffy bag, a small Jiffy bag.

"I don't have a clue what was in there. It came from British Cycling.

"It was for the doctor. It was nothing to do with Brad. I gave it to Richard Freeman.

"This parcel was asked for, for Richard Freeman. It could have been nasal strips or bandaids, I really don't know."

The logistics surrounding a cycling team are complex and packages are regularly transported.

Cope, who said he combined his role at British Cycling with roles at Team Sky, added: "It wasn't something unusual either. If people were going somewhere they'd just say 'can you take this?'.

"There's no way that British Cycling are going to put something dodgy or illegal for them to take through customs. It's just not going to happen."

Determining the contents of the specific package will be central to the investigation, which could take some time.

UKAD will not give specifics of the investigation, only stating that it is investigating "allegations of wrongdoing within cycling" and confirming that two of its investigators met with British Cycling staff at the Manchester Velodrome last Friday.

Team Sky, launched with a zero-tolerance policy to doping in 2010, "strongly refute" any allegation of wrongdoing.

Press Association Sport understands Team Sky and Brailsford have tried to ascertain the events of June 2011, gathering written statements from staff present at the time and documentation to piece together the events.

Team Sky and British Cycling have been intertwined since the road team was established for their first season in 2010.

Freeman is among those who have been employed by both.

He did not accompany the Great Britain team to Qatar for the week-long UCI Road World Championships, which conclude on October 16.

Freeman was the Team Sky doctor in June 2011 and initiated Wiggins' application for three therapeutic use exemptions for an otherwise banned drug.

Data stolen by hackers from files held by the World Anti-Doping Agency showed Wiggins received three TUEs for anti-inflammatory drug triamcinolone - a substance which has a history of abuse in cycling - on the eve of the 2011 and 2012 Tours de France and 2013 Giro d'Italia. He became the first British winner of the Tour in 2012.

Wiggins and Brailsford, the British Cycling performance director until April 2014, have strenuously denied any wrongdoing, insisting each time the TUEs were medically necessary to deal with a pollen allergy that aggravates Wiggins' long-standing asthma condition.

The TUEs also had the approval of the UCI, cycling's world governing body, and there is no suggestion that Wiggins, who left Team Sky in April 2015, or the team, have broken any rules.

Sky's backing of British Cycling dates back to 2008 but that arrangement has now ended.

However, the media company remains committed to Team Sky and on Monday Team Sky chairman Graham McWilliam made public his support for Brailsford's squad, winners of the Tour de France in four of the last five years.

Concerns have also been raised about the availability of controversial and powerful painkiller Tramadol among the Great Britain team at the 2012 Road Cycling World Championships.

Tramadol is on WADA's monitoring list, with worries over its side-effects.

The team doctor from the event denies the claim, sources within British Cycling said.