Tour de France 2017 ***SPOILERS***

[lazy farmer]

forgive the thoughts of a new member who has lurked for a long time but I am curious on a couple of things. Why do so many on here not like Dave Brailsford ? He is hugely successful and much admired by many in other sports? and Why when Froome has stated he wants to win the Veulta and has trained accordingly do people think he is decline ?

 

[mjr]

forgive the thoughts of a new member who has lurked for a long time but I am curious on a couple of things. Why do so many on here not like Dave Brailsford ? He is hugely successful and much admired by many in other sports?

I think cycling has had more examples than most sports of strong charismatic managers later being denounced as frauds and DaveB's latest outburst at the Tour and attempt to ban journalists that actually only summarised recent coverage is all too reminiscent of US Postal and Discovery.

As for the Froome thing, I don't get it either. Let's see how he does at the Vuelta.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

forgive the thoughts of a new member who has lurked for a long time but I am curious on a couple of things. Why do so many on here not like Dave Brailsford ? He is hugely successful and much admired by many in other sports? and Why when Froome has stated he wants to win the Veulta and has trained accordingly do people think he is decline ?

People can be successful and admired by some and still be a complete dick to others.
And Froome could still win the Vuelta and be in decline; he managed to win the Tour and was not as dominant as previously. He played the numbers well and was exposed a few times; if only more riders and teams had been willing to take Sky on. But they didn't. Too scared of losing a top 20 GC place or word tour points (or something) - there's still little flair in Grand Tour riding.

 

[Crackle]

forgive the thoughts of a new member who has lurked for a long time but I am curious on a couple of things. Why do so many on here not like Dave Brailsford ? He is hugely successful and much admired by many in other sports? and Why when Froome has stated he wants to win the Veulta and has trained accordingly do people think he is decline ?

I don't dislike Brailsford. I don't think there's anyone else who could have done what he's done at the time he did it, I also think he's key to Sky sponsorship but he has flaws which have been exposed recently. Big enough such that his position is almost untenable but his power base is broad enough to almost make him un-sackable. The downside of that is that he and by association, Sky/BC, carry the baggage of the TUE debacle and the bullying misogynistic culture in BC and whilst he's there those question will always be on every journalists lips. He should really have gone and let everything move on but he hasn't.

 

[SWSteve]

forgive the thoughts of a new member who has lurked for a long time but I am curious on a couple of things. Why do so many on here not like Dave Brailsford ? He is hugely successful and much admired by many in other sports? and Why when Froome has stated he wants to win the Veulta and has trained accordingly do people think he is decline ?

Brailsford's also spectacularly failed to respond to anything levelled with him since almost this time last year. There's been numerous times he's engaged with journalists, only to tie himself in knots and make things sound a lot worse.

That coupled with him jot being happy that someone summarised the 'winter of discontent' so banned them from a presser is ridiculous.

As is saying they will only do a press day with visual media, due to increased pressures - surely this would be more burdensome than written press.

 

[Viking]

People can be successful and admired by some and still be a complete dick to others.

I think that is almost inevitable (although I mean being seen a a complete dick rather than actually being one). My main concern about SDB is that he pushed himself as the gifted manager / leader type and that, IMV, has been his greatest failure: no procedures in place, no clear accountability, no audit trails, no backups of crucial data etc

And Froome could still win the Vuelta and be in decline; he managed to win the Tour and was not as dominant as previously. He played the numbers well and was exposed a few times; if only more riders and teams had been willing to take Sky on. But they didn't. Too scared of losing a top 20 GC place or word tour points (or something) - there's still little flair in Grand Tour riding.

Completely agree

 

[DCLane]

Dan Martin goes up another level in my 'hard rider' list

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/l...inished-tour-de-france-fractured-spine-344280

 

[smutchin]

Brailsford is given a lot of credit for the hard work and knowledge of other people - Peter Keen, primarily.

I don't know where the phrase 'marginal gains' came from but I wouldn't be surprised if he picked it up on his MBA course from a book with a title along the lines of 'How to be a business success with minimal talent'

He's a hack. And he has demonstrated many times that he has poor man-management skills and doesn't know how to deal with the media.

 

[themosquitoking]

Dan Martin goes up another level in my 'hard rider' list

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/l...inished-tour-de-france-fractured-spine-344280

Only one level seems tight, two at least i reckon.

 

[mjr]

So Dan Martin completes the race with broken vertebrae, Luke Rowe with broken rib from stage 2 (says http://www.bbc.com/sport/wales/40631180 ). Any other nutters this year?

 

[AndyRM]

So Dan Martin completes the race with broken vertebrae, Luke Rowe with broken rib from stage 2 (says http://www.bbc.com/sport/wales/40631180 ). Any other nutters this year?

Think that's it this year. G finished in 2013 with a broken pelvis which must have been a wee bit uncomfortable.

 

[brommers]

I did 50k with a slight headache last weekend

Is that worse than a head wind?

 

[Doseone]

Brailsford is given a lot of credit for the hard work and knowledge of other people - Peter Keen, primarily.

I don't know where the phrase 'marginal gains' came from but I wouldn't be surprised if he picked it up on his MBA course from a book with a title along the lines of 'How to be a business success with minimal talent'

He's a hack. And he has demonstrated many times that he has poor man-management skills and doesn't know how to deal with the media.

Brailsford screwed up when he said that Simon Cope was in France to meet up with Emma Pooley which was impossible unless she had a Rasmussen like ability to be in two places at once because she was racing in Spain at the time.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

The world according to Sir Dave:

Very good things happen - that was all down to me

Anything else happens - nothing to do with me

 

[Bollo]

The world according to Sir Dave:

Very good things happen - that was all down to me

Anything else happens - nothing to do with me

As the thread has gone rogue, I might as well shout out for an article written by David Walsh in the Sunday Times on the 16th July (it's behind the paywall - I was at Ma and Pa Bollo's for the weekend who have a subscription.) It was a proper hatchet job on Sir Dave. The substance was a recapitulation of crimes and misdemeanours but he ended by comparing Brailsford with Trump as both have "power without respect". Ouch!