Sir Dave Brailsford admits to errors over Team Sky package questions

UK Anti-Doping is investigating after the Daily Mail reported Team Sky and Sir Bradley Wiggins were under scrutiny over a package delivered to Brailsford's squad at the June 2011 Criterium du Dauphine race in France.

Brailsford says he provided a "running commentary" of his personal fact-finding mission, which contained errors, but will not disclose what was in the package. He insisted Team Sky had the support of parent company Sky and there was no suggestion he would resign over the matter.

Brailsford incorrectly stated that Simon Cope, who was then British Cycling women's team manager and the courier of the package, had travelled to the Alps to visit Emma Pooley, when she was in fact racing in the Basque country in Spain.

Another error was the claim Wiggins could not have been on the Team Sky bus at La Toussuire as it had already left, but video footage subsequently showed it was there.

"I don't think I've handled the situation as well as I could've done and probably made it a damn sight worse than it needed to be," Brailsford, the British Cycling performance director until April 2014, told the Cycling Podcast.

"From what was a small little fire, if you like, I have inadvertently thrown a huge amount of petrol on it. And two and two equals 10 now.

"I incorrectly spoke about Emma Pooley. I also said (about) the bus. That's compounded the whole situation.

"It looks like there is something strange going on here when it turns out that there isn't. I have looked at this allegation and I can find no wrongdoing.

"We're not cheating. We're not doing anything wrong here. The one thing I know about Team Sky is that this is a clean team.

"If I didn't think we were doing it the right way I wouldn't be doing it."

Team Sky, launched with a zero-tolerance policy to doping in 2010, "strongly refute" allegations of wrongdoing and are co-operating with the UKAD investigation which Wiggins has also welcomed. British Cycling is also co-operating.

Brailsford has determined what was in the package, which Cope says was a Jiffy bag to be delivered to Dr Richard Freeman, who was then the Team Sky doctor and now at British Cycling.

But Brailsford is not prepared to reveal the package's contents and prefers that the UKAD investigation can take place, so his team can be exonerated by an independent third party.

"I can tell you my interpretation and what I find out here, but it's not going to be sufficient for most people," he added.

"I don't think it helps at this moment in time to say it was 'x'.

"What people want is an independent view. And that is what we are going to get with the UK Anti-Doping investigation, which is why I absolutely welcome it.

"In terms of my particular investigation and gathering of the facts... I can't see any wrongdoing.

"However, I think it's important this is put to an independent third party who can interview everybody and go through and determine if there was a wrongdoing or not."

The investigation has followed a furore around Wiggins seeking and receiving permission to use an otherwise banned substance ahead of three of his biggest races on medical grounds, including the 2012 Tour de France when he became the first British winner.

Data stolen by hackers from files held by the World Anti-Doping Agency showed Wiggins received three therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for the 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.

Wiggins and Brailsford 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.

Some have accused Team Sky of abusing the TUE system, something Brailsford strongly denies. He pointed to the fact that Team Sky have had 13 TUEs in seven seasons.

Brailsford added: "If you're taking medication when you haven't got a need, and you are doing it purely for performance enhancement reasons, then that's not the line, that's beyond the line in my opinion."

Former Team Sky rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has alleged powerful and controversial painkiller tramadol was being offered "freely" around the Great Britain team at the 2012 Road World Championships. Tramadol is on WADA's monitoring list.

Brailsford insisted he was not aware of tramadol - and a number of other substances - being used without a medical need.

Brailsford, who said he would stop such systematic use, said: "I very much trust our medical staff to stick within the WADA code and do the right thing. But is it being abused? Absolutely not."