Dave Brailsford has brushed aside questions about his future as principal of Team Sky, saying he is "looking forward to getting cracking into the new season and see whether we can improve on our results so far."
In an extract from an interview with the BBC, Brailsford also said he believes he has the support of team leader Chris Froome as they attempt to win the Tour de France together for a fourth time.
"I’m confident that we're going to go to the Tour de France to give it absolutely the best shot. I’m proud of what we’re doing and I’m confident we’re going to go forward and do the right things to make sure we win the right races this year," Brailsford said.
He also hit back at the chairman of UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), David Kenworthy, for undermining the UKAD investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in cycling. Kenworthy last week described the evidence provided by Brailsford and other leading figures in British cycling in front of a parliamentary committee as "extraordinary" and "very disappointing".
Brailsford spoke on Tuesday during Team Sky’s annual media day in Mallorca. It is the first time he has made any public comment since being grilled by British members of parliament at the CMS select committee on December 19. The full round table interview with Brailsford will be published on Cyclingnews later today.
Brailsford has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks as controversies have rocked Team Sky and British Cycling following revelations of Bradley Wiggins’ TUE use and the ‘mystery medical package’ couriered from the UK to France for his use at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine. On Friday Froome was non-committal when asked if he felt confident in Brailsford’s explanation.
Kenworthy made his claims in an interview with the BBC at the weekend, heightening the pressure on Brailsford. However, the British team manager and former British Cycling performance director was critical of Kenworthy speaking out while his organisation's investigation is still ongoing.
"The only extraordinary thing, I think, was the chairman of UKAD's comments the other day when he commented about an ongoing investigation," Brailsford said. "As an organisation like UKAD and for the chair to say it is an extraordinary thing - that's the extraordinary thing in itself."
Brailsford looked to take the moral high ground in the war of words, adding: "Most fair-minded people recognise that if there's a process in place to try to establish exactly what went on then we should wait until the end of that process, see what the findings are, see where we are at that moment.
"Once that's all established, then we can move on from there. To try to dive in halfway through and undermine that process is not... for me, I don't think most fair-minded people would think that was the best way of doing it.
"I'm not going to get pulled down into the weeds, as it were. I'm just going to respect that process, do the right thing, and then when that's concluded we can all move on."
