Sir Dave Brailsford will review his role at British Cycling following the World Track Championships in Colombia later this month after admitting it is getting increasingly difficult to juggle his twin responsibilities as performance director of the national body and general manager of Team Sky. Brailsford said he was anxious not to “stretch” himself too much ahead of the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
One of the foremost coaches in world, let alone British, sport, Brailsford is credited with masterminding British Cycling’s rise to prominence over the past two decades. Since 2010, he has also overseen the stunning success of Team Sky, for whom Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome have won the last two Tour de France titles.
The level at which Team Sky are now operating, however, has meant that Brailsford’s focus has increasingly been on the professional road cycling team with his hands-on involvement in the British programme scaled back.
“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.
“In summary 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.”
Asked whether he had already resolved to scale back his involvement in British Cycling, Brailsford said it was still up in the air.
“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.
“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.”
Meanwhile, British rider Steve Cummings has added to the feelgood factor surrounding British Cycling by triumphing in the Tour Mediterraneen, hanging on to his slender overnight lead on Sunday's summit finish on Mont Faron in southern France.
The BMC rider had won Saturday’s time trial to carve out a four-second advantage over his nearest challenger.
It was the first stage-race victory of the Wirral-born rider’s career and came less than a fortnight after he finished second overall at the Dubai Tour.
“It was so close, I went way over my limit,” the 32 year-old said. “I thought I could do a good GC [general classification]. I kept staying in the front and then the time trial was great. In the past, I have had form like this – or better – and something has gone wrong: I have had a crash or been sick. So it is nice to have it work out.”
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