I have no knowledge of what Sky did or did not do, but it highlights a difficult question. We all use medicines to get better or relieve symptoms.
If you train and race hard you will suffer more injury and with sports such as cycling 'performance induced asthma is quite common and an accepted medical diagnosis. The question is when does drugs taken to speed up recovery or reduce pain- things we would do normally, become cheating ? cortico steroids are prescribed for a variety of conditions - I was given Prednisone For a bad alllergic reaction to a facial wasp sting- which rapidly reduced the swelling and elevated me from 485th to 8th on a 8mile Strava segment I try to do several times a week!
So should athletes just not be allowed to take anything if injured? Heal naturally, or instead of a TUE be given a mandatory 3 months off competition for certain Therapeutic uses ?
there is loads of sad fuckers doping in amateur racing though - because they have small cocks - real arseholes but possibly driven to it by much of the macho bullshit culture that many cycling club members suffer from - for many they are obsessed about performance , pain, all that shit as opppsed to just enjoying riding the bike.
Lots of cunts in cycling clubs and why I left the one I was in- too much ego and not enough social