End of the road for Sky

Brailsford asks for six months to find new backers for cycling’s richest team after long-term partners pull plug on £180m deal

Sir Dave Brailsford has given himself six months to find a new backer for Team Sky before pulling the plug on the team, kick-starting a scramble to secure the services of a host of staff and riders, including Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas.

Long-term partner Sky dropped the bombshell announcement yesterday that it was ending its involvement in cycling at the end of 2019, bringing to a close one of the most successful – and controversial – chapters in British sporting history.

Sky has backed Team Sky since their inception in 2009, pouring in over £180million in that time, making them the richest team in the sport. However, the team have also been caught up in various controversies, with the potential for further damaging headlines one of the reasons Sky is ending its involvement, particularly given the recent takeover of Sky by US cable giant Comcast.

Brailsford, who found out three weeks ago and who had told just a handful of senior management, said the reaction from his riders and staff when he broke the news to them on Tuesday night had been “unanimously” supportive and he had been given a mandate to go out and find new investment.

It is understood Brailsford stood up to speak at around 10pm after the opening-night dinner at the team’s winter training camp in Majorca, with even the top riders unaware of what he was about to say.

“I wanted to wait until I had the whole team, and the riders and all of the staff were together,” he told Sky Sports News. “I told them the situation so we were all together. I wanted to see everybody, look them in the eyes, tell them face to face. And like anything in life, when things change, you stand up and say, ‘Right let’s go. Let’s collectively build another future, or let’s stop here’. And everyone wanted to go and build another future.

“And I take that responsibility on very, very seriously. I’ll go out and try and give it my best shot. I must say that the reaction of the entire group, and particularly those senior riders, was something that I will never forget.”

Brailsford claimed the news of

‘Everyone wanted to go out and build another future. I’ll give it my best shot’

Sky’s decision had “not been much of a surprise” given sponsors come and go in cycling and 10 years was a relatively long partnership. But he and the team had spoken this year of “secured funding cycles up until 2024” and were very much acting as if it was business as usual.

Thomas signed a new multi-year deal only this autumn, after winning the Tour de France. Egan Bernal, Team Sky’s young Colombian star, also signed a new five-year deal.

Earlier this summer, Brailsford’s team agreed a lease at the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance, a few hundred yards from the national velodrome, where they have been based since the team’s inception, although The Daily Telegraph understands that deal has now fallen through and the team are looking for alternative sites.

Either way, the announcement sent shock waves through the sport. Although insiders at Team Sky and at Sky were adamant the decision was made by Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch alone, the ongoing takeover by US cable giant Comcast, signed off in October, did appear to have altered the landscape. James Murdoch’s resignation from the Sky board at the same time deprived Brailsford of one of his and the team’s staunchest allies.

Comcast is said to be “hands-off ”, but there was never any guarantee that the new owners would be as committed to handing over £30million-plus each year.

Especially given all the recent controversies. There is no doubt the team’s historic use of therapeutic use exemptions – including for Sir Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France – the investigation by the UK Anti-doping Agency, in relation to a mystery Jiffy-bag package delivered to Wiggins at the Criterium du Dauphine race in 2011, and the recent inquiries into British Cycling, damaged the brand.

Brailsford denied Sky’s decision was in any way affected by that, or the impending General Medical Council hearing concerning former doctor Dr Richard Freeman.

Regardless, he must now go out and sell his vision to prospective partners. The pitch should be easy. Team Sky have won four of the past five grand tours and six of the past seven editions of the Tour de France. Brailsford said he would want any new partner to continue operating at that level.

It is understood he will give himself until late April or early May before telling the riders they are free to go out and find new teams.

Froome tweeted his support for the search for a new partner yesterday, describing Sky as a “very special team”, adding the plan was “to be together in 2020 if possible”.