Team Sky commitments forces a rethink of dual roles
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Chris Froom and Dave Brailsford with the Sky Team(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Dave Brailsford talks tactics (Image credit: Chris Keller-Jackson)
Dave Brailsford looks confident as Sky team car heads out behind bunch(Image credit: Robert Lampard)
Dave Brailsford and Richie Porte(Image credit: View over Abinger Hammer cricket ground as the peloton ride by fans in the Surrey countryside sitting in their local watering hole)
For Sir Dave Brailsford combining twin roles as performance director of British Cycling and general manager of Team Sky has increasingly become difficult to manage, resulting in the British knight stating that following the World Track Championships in Colombia later this month he will review his role with the national body.
Brailsford, anxious not to "stretch" himself too much ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, is seen as one of the foremost sporting coaches in world for masterminding British Cycling's rise to prominence over the past two decades. Since 2010 he has overseen the success of Team Sky who have won the last two editions of the Tour de France courtesy of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
"I think it's fair to say the size of the challenge at Team Sky has grown over the last few years," Brailsford said ahead of the world championships in Cali on Feb 26-March 2.
"It was a big challenge in the first couple of years just to get it up and running from scratch. But the nature of the challenge has changed, winning the Tour twice has put us on the map globally.
"The wavelength in British Cycling is that four-year period, really, whereas with Team Sky it is a bit more like an annual sporting season where we have the Tour de France every year which is like an Olympics every year. That demands a constant level of focus and attention.
"I would say it is getting more and more difficult and I think post-worlds it is always a good time to sit back and review and see where I'm at."
There has been no final decision made yet on how Brailsford will resolve his juggling of the two roles. "Nothing drastic [has been decided]," he said. "It is just a question of continually managing the situation. I don't want to get to the point where I'm diluted – where I'm stretched so broadly that I'm diluting my own impact.
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Brailsford explained that his reasoning for reviewing his roles is to ensure that British cycling is in the ideal position for success at the Rio Olympics.
"The thing I am concerned about is to make sure the British cycling team is in the best possible shape it could be heading in to Rio and that I feel that I'm contributing fully to make sure that happens. If I was occupying a space and for whatever reason I didn't feel I was optimising what I could do then I would change my role so that someone could be maximising that particular part."
