Dr Richard Freeman tribunal to resume in April and will conclude in October 2020

Dr Richard Freeman’s tribunal will resume on 28 April but will not be completed until October 2020.

The hearing, which is assessing the former British Cycling and Team Sky medic’s fitness to practise, was adjourned on Monday on medical grounds.

His lawyer said last week that Freeman, who has bipolar disorder, was unwell.

Freeman has been accused of ordering testosterone to British Cycling’s headquarters in 2011 to boost an athlete’s performance, which he denies.

The tribunal, which had already been postponed from February, began on 28 October with 40 days allotted.

But four additional weeks from 28 April have now been scheduled to complete the first stage of the tribunal during which Freeman contested four charges, which relate to ordering the banned substance knowing or believing it was intended to enhance an athlete’s performance.

The second and third stages of the tribunal, where his fitness to practise and any potential sanction will be heard, are set to take place from 5 October to 16 October.

Freeman has admitted 18 of 22 charges against him, which include ordering 30 sachets of Testogel to the National Cycling Centre in 2011, lying to try to cover up the order and lying to a UK Anti-Doping investigation.

The medic, who has yet to be cross-examined by the General Medical Council, says he was bullied into ordering the testosterone by former British Cycling and Team Sky performance director Shane Sutton.

But Sutton, who stormed out of the tribunal last month, denied those claims – and rejected allegations that he was “a doper, a liar and a bully”, put forward during the hearing by Mary O’Rourke QC, Freeman’s lawyer.