‘I was ready to walk away’ Brailsford reveals he wanted to quit following team’s scandals
Sky’s withdrawal pushed team manager to brink Ineos linked with Giro d’italia winner Carapaz
Sir Dave Brailsford says he is looking forward to further success with Team Ineos after admitting he nearly quit the sport last December.
The scandals which engulfed British Cycling and Team Sky had left him “angry” and “wanting to fight everybody”. And when Sky plc told him it was pulling the plug on its 10-year sponsorship of his team, Brailsford admitted there was a moment when he could have walked away.
“There was a moment of reflection where I thought, ‘What am I doing? Where is this heading?’,” he said. “It would have been a natural break, a chance to take an easy way out and step away gracefully. But then you think, ‘Hang on a minute’ – life is all about challenges and I love the sport too much. So I thought, ‘Sod it, I’m going to carry on’. ”
Brailsford was speaking as the sun set behind Place de la Concorde on Sunday night following Egan Bernal’s victory – Colombia’s first in Tour de France history – and Geraint Thomas’s second place. It was the team’s seventh Tour win in eight years, but their first under new owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who was in Paris to enjoy the spoils of victory.
Wearing a Colombia football top which he had just traded for his Ineos T-shirt with a Bernal fan, Brailsford was in a reflective mood.
It was only 18 months ago that a parliamentary report found Brailsford’s team guilty of “crossing ethical lines” with the use of medication ahead of Sir Bradley Wiggins’ Tour win in 2012, along with poor record-keeping and transparency.
Chris Froome, the team’s star rider, was simultaneously embroiled in a long-running fight to clear his name following an adverse analytical finding for the asthma drug salbutamol. And Brailsford – whom many expected to quit or be fired – was “angry”.
Asked whether he felt vindicated, having ridden out the storm and maintained the team’s dominance, Brailsford replied: “Not really. I got to the point where I felt life is for looking forward.
“You can look back and be angry or bitter, but leading a group of other people to achieve something is a much happier place to be.
“During the Tour last year, I was angry. I felt like I was in a fight the whole time. I was stewing. Maybe age helps, but this year I’ve felt a lot calmer. I don’t feel any less competitive, but I’ve been a bit more measured and I’ve stopped fighting everybody.”
Brailsford said he accepted that there would always be “haters”, but insisted they only made him stronger. “This game teaches you to be resilient and the more you are challenged, the harder you push, the more resilient you become,” he said. “There have been times where people have pushed me as hard as they can, and it only makes you stronger. I believe tough times
‘During last year’s Tour, I was angry. I felt like I was in a fight the whole time. I was stewing’
don’t last but tough people do. It takes me back to my upbringing in a Welsh slate mining village ... they were tough guys, those miners, and you learn good values from them which have stood me in good stead.”
Ineos celebrated their victory in their usual spot, a nightclub just around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe. And Brailsford predicted that his team would become even stronger as their efforts to integrate a new Spanish-speaking core of riders bears fruit. Bernal, the youngest Tour champion in 110 years, is one of a number of Spanish and Colombian riders on Ineos’s roster, with Giro d’italia winner Richard Carapaz, of Ecuador, also rumoured to be joining.
“When we started the team, there was a very Anglo-saxon way about it,” Brailsford said. “You are going to do it our way, no debate about it, which is naive when you have Colombians and Spanish in the team. Of course the best way to do it is to understand other people’s culture, other people’s views and make them feel comfortable and help them to perform to the best of their ability. To support them, we had to invest in Spanish coaches.”
Brailsford said he would continue to look forward as he plotted how to keep Ineos one step ahead of their rivals.
“You can’t do this job without a thick skin,” he said. “In sports management, you need to be resilient and decide what’s important and what you are prepared to take on board. Sometimes you have to look inside yourself and dig deep.”