SKY GO TO WAR
Brailsford lashes out at cycling chief over Froome comment
DAVE BRAILSFORD has fuelled a war of words with UCI president David Lappartient, accusing him of having a ‘local French mayor mentality’ and not understanding the responsibilities of his role.
The Team Sky boss hit out at the Frenchman for claiming, on the eve of the Tour de France, that wealth had played a key part in helping Chris Froome clear his name after a nine-month doping investigation.
Brailsford said he felt the recently elected president of cycling’s world governing body had ‘got some work to do’ to grasp that his job was to govern the sport without bias.
He added that Lappartient, who remains Mayor of Sarzeau in Brittany and has often been at odds with Team Sky and their boss during his first year in charge, should not take a French view on matters affecting the sport.
The comments came as Brailsford prepared his team for yesterday’s second stage of the Tour, which was won in a sprint finish by world champion Peter Sagan.
A crash in the final 2km took out several riders, but defending champion Froome — who had crashed heavily into a field on Saturday — was not affected and finished in the main pack.
Of the general classification contenders, Froome’s team-mate, Geraint Thomas, moved up to seventh overall after securing a bonus second in a sprint section.
Meanwhile, Mark Cavendish didn’t feature in the bunch sprint for a second day in a row, leaving Team Dimension Data’s principal Douglas Ryder to rue yet another ‘missed opportunity’.
Team Sky said they would be going ‘full gas’ in today’s 35.5km team time trial around Cholet, seeking to win the stage and make up some of the 51 seconds Froome lost in his crash.
However, it is clear Brailsford’s attention has been more on Lappartient’s remarks in the press.
Before yesterday’s stage, he voiced his views of the president and his handling of the investigation into Froome, which centred on a sample he gave at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, which exceeded the permitted level for the asthma drug salbutamol.
Asked what he had thought of Lappartient saying Froome had an advantage by having the best experts behind him, Brailsford said: ‘I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he started. I thought, “He is new to the job, he obviously doesn’t quite understand the responsibilities of a presidential role”.
‘I think he has still got the kind of local French mayor kind of mentality maybe. He has contradicted himself a few times.’
Brailsford reiterated that there was no room for bias in Lappartient’s role. He said: ‘If you want to be the president of an international federation then protect everybody in that international community. Don’t take a French angle or a nationalistic view. I think he is still learning that.’
When it was put to Brailsford that Lappartient considered Froome’s case to be an example of there being two forms of justice, one for the rich and one for the poor, he said: ‘No I don’t think it is. And I think it’s a bit of a cop-out really.’
He added: ‘If I was in charge of the UCI I would want to attract the biggest sponsors. I would not be criticising them for the resource.’