"It was just an envelope, a Jiffy bag, a small Jiffy bag,” said Cope, breaking his silence on the issue in an interview with cyclingnews.com. “As far as I know it could have been Speedplay pedals in there."

Cope said that the package was put together by someone else at British Cycling and that he was asked to take it directly to Sky doctor Richard Freeman out in France.

"It was nothing to do with Brad," he said. "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."

"[British Cycling employees delivering something for Sky] wasn't unusual either," he added. "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. You have to go through two sets of customs. Why are you going to take the risk?”