Sponsor signals ongoing support for Sky

Embattled WorldTour outfit Sky received some welcome support from its most important sponsor on Monday.

Team Sky at the 2016 Vuelta a Espana. Source: Getty

The team has been the subject of a barrage of negative headlines for obtaining a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for the corticosteroid triamcinolone for Bradley Wiggins in 2011, prior to the Tour de France.

But Graham McWilliam, deputy head of Sky News and chairman of the Team Sky board, Tweeted a message of support to the team over the weekend, telling them to stay focussed on winning.

However, criticism continues to come from outside and inside the team, with Sky's Nicholas Roche, who will transfer to BMC in 2017, said overnight the TUE system was a "problem". 

"Like I said already on my Twitter a few weeks ago, when WADA was hacked the first time and before the Wiggins story, there is a major problem with TUEs," Roche told Cyclingnews.

"There is a problem with the actual system. Again, you can do whatever you want against Wiggins, but unfortunately, as far as ethically it's wrong, he is within the rules.

"It is wrong that these rules are like that. That's where the main problem is.

"Once we get those rules right, there won't be any abuse, but that's the priority."