Team Sky’s era of domination is about to draw to a close
THE future of Team Sky has been cast into doubt after its owner and sponsor, broadcaster Sky, confirmed it will end involvement in professional cycling after the 2019 season, the British-based outfit said yesterday.
The decision means the successful team, which has won eight Grand Tours since 2012, will need to begin the search for another sponsor to provide funding from the beginning of 2020 and continue to compete under a new name.
“While Sky will be moving on at the end of next year, the team is open-minded about the future and the potential of working with a new partner, should the right opportunity present itself,” Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said in a statement.
“We aren’t finished yet by any means. There is another exciting year of racing ahead of us and we will be doing everything we can to deliver more Team Sky success in 2019.”
21st Century Fox, which owns a minority stake in Team Sky, has also confirmed that 2019 will be the last year of their involvement in cycling.
Team Sky was founded in 2010 with the ambitious goal of securing a Tour de France victory by a British cyclist for the first time within five years, a feat they achieved just two years later when Bradley Wiggins triumphed in Paris.
Chris Froome then claimed the first of four Tour de France wins a year later and became the first cyclist in more than 30 years to hold all three Grand Tour titles at the same time when he added the 2017 Vuelta a Espana and 2018 Giro d’Italia to his list of honours.
Earlier this year, Froome’s teammate Geraint Thomas became the third Briton to win the Tour de France for Sky, who have amassed 322 victories since their formation.
When Team Sky launched, there was more than a modicum of scepticism at the undoubtedly flashy new boys in the peloton.
Not that there was inexperience as British Cycling’s Brailsford was installed as team principal and brought with him the “marginal gains” strategy that would underpin the team’s successes and controversies over almost a decade of extraordinary success.
Six out of seven Tour de France titles, three of which were won by different riders, and Froome holding all three major tour titles at once would be impressive enough in isolation but, coming after more than 100 years of Britain failing to get a man on the Tour podium, the success and the speed with which it was achieved were nothing short of astonishing.
The broadcaster had already enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the national cycling federation and with Brailsford’s persuasion, a team was built to nurture young British talent and win cycling’s biggest prizes.
At the time, reports said the investment was worth £30 million over four years but by 2017 their budget for that year alone was £31.1 million. Such figures dwarfed anything the rest of the peloton could muster and soon led to a seething undercurrent of animosity.
Wiggins finished 24th in Team Sky’s tentative debut at the Tour de France in 2010 and two years later became the first British winner of cycling’s most prestigious event.
With Wiggins also leading British domination of the cycling programme at the 2012 London Olympics, Brailsford was the toast of the sporting world.
“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by one percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,” Brailsford said that year, expanding on his marginal gains philosophy.
At a time when trust in cycling was at an all-time low on the back of Lance Armstrong and relentless doping revelations, Sky seemed a shining beacon for their focus on technical improvements and their insistence on “winning clean”.
But soon the halo began to slip. The team struggled to explain the delivery of a mystery “Jiffy bag” for Wiggins at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine in France and Brailsford’s belated claim that it was a flu treatment that needed to come from England did not convince many onlookers. A 14-month UK Anti-Doping investigation into its contents eventually hit a dead end due to a lack of accurate medical records being available.
In March this year, a damning report by the British government’s Digital Culture Media and Sport select committee said that the team had cynically abused the anti-doping system by using therapeutic-use exemption certificates.
Froome won the Tour in 2013 and would go on to win another three, but he too came under the microscope for an adverse analytical finding for the asthma drug salbutamol. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the governing UCI, but the PR damage had been done.
Despite winning the Giro, again another milestone for a British rider, Froome endured his worst reception in France, being jostled and spat at on this year’s Tour as critics accused Sky of crossing the ethical line.
Thomas won his maiden title in the race to give the team a timely boost, considering the Welshman’s lack of connection to any controversies.
By then it was clear what a force the Sky machine had become from that flashy but nervous launch in London in 2010, with its huge entourage, clad in black-and-blue, leading the way wherever they went. Even their buses went out in front.
It was changes further up the food chain that probably spelt out the end of Sky’s association as last year James Murdoch resigned as Sky plc chairman following the majoritycontrol takeover by US cable group Comcast Corp.
Murdoch had been the main driver of Sky’s involvement in cycling. He was a keen fan of the sport and the push to make the team the best in the world had not been simply a business decision but one of personal passion, too.
With Murdoch gone, so too it seems is the passion as Sky pursues other aspects of its business.
As far as shaking up the world of cycling and putting British riders to the fore, the sponsorship has undoubtedly been a spectacular success. The team hopes to continue beyond next year but any potential new backer is highly unlikely to be able to match Sky’s investment levels, suggesting that the end of one of the most dominant eras in the history of the sport is about to draw to a close. |
Reuters