Riddle as Brailsford shuts company

SIR DAVE BRAILSFORD has closed down a private consultancy business boasting more than £ 5million in cash to become, Sportsmail understands, a permanent employee of Team Sky.

The move appears to suggest team principal Brailsford retains the full support of his bosses despite the uncertain future of the professional cycling team, not least with four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome facing a possible ban for a failed drugs test.

Until now Brailsford has essentially been paid as a consultant to Team Sky’s parent company, Tour Racing Limited.

It is unclear whether the change has to do with the planned takeover of Sky by Disney. Last night a statement from Sky said: ‘We choose not to comment on the individual salary or contract arrangements of any member of the team.’

Brailsford signed a declaration of solvency with his partner, Lisa Buckle, at a law office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 2, closing down a company with assets of more than £5.6m.

Sky still appear to owe him almost £100,000, although he is rumoured to be paid about £3m.

Brailsford’s company accounts show a loan of more than £25,000 to leading cycling agent Giuseppe Acquadro.

The Italian represents a number of riders who have been signed by Brailsford at Team Sky, including Michal Kwiatkowski and Mikel Landa.

And while there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, and no explanation as yet from Sky as to why Brailsford Ltd appears to have lent the money, cycling’s world governing body has strict regulations about rider agents. In the UCI’s riders’ agent regulations it states that ‘the licensed RA is exclusively remunerated by his/her client and in no event by a third party’.

It should, however, be pointed out that Brailsford obviously knew the documents would be made public and it is a repayable loan rather than a payment.