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Team Sky: How to Make Cycling More Credible?

By Martin Mrazek

Dave Brailford, the general manager of Team Sky, has recently spent a lot of time considering how to improve the credibility and overall reputation of professional cycling and these are the results.

Independent physiological tests

As you would expect, he praises Chris Froome’s voluntary independent physiological testing done shortly after the Tour de France (Read more about this story HERE).

“Chris as a rider and we, as a team, get challenged with this whole data release quite a lot, more than any other team. I think everyone recognised that, regardless of the data, it was a step in the right direction.”

Brailsford hopes Froome’s actions will inspire more riders and possibly even teams to do the same as often as possible.

Mandatory data release

Besides the independent data the teams should, according to Brailsford, also release the physiological data and he would very much like the UCI to take charge of this.

Dave Brailsford got his own set of ideas.

“Wouldn’t it be better if the UCI took the lead and said, ‘you know what, all of you should release this data, in this format, at this moment in time, so there’s no ‘will they won’t they’, it’s all sorted before the season starts, everybody knows what’s expected,’ and off we go and deliver it across all teams?”

Independent anti-doping officers

Brailsford’s final suggestion is to make anti-doping officers live with the professional teams during big races. They would rotate after a certain amount of time to ensure their impartiality.

Chris Froome has extended his contract with Team Sky to the end of 2018.

“If someone’s cheating… they’d have to be doing it somewhere, sometime, and if you lived here 100% of the time you’d find out. Get out there, get amongst it, it would be cheaper and way more effective and welcome,” claims the Team Sky manager.

Do you support Dave’s ideas?