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"Stick it up your arse" - Sir Dave Brailsford lashes out at reporterDave Brailsford faces the press, Paris, October 2012 (copyright Simon MacMichael)

"Stick it up your arse" - Sir Dave Brailsford lashes out at reporter

Team Sky boss excluded writer from rest day press conference - but questions aren't going to go away...
by Simon_MacMichael
Tue, Jul 18, 2017 12:12
39

Team Sky’s decision to control media access during yesterday’s second rest day at the Tour de France has backfired spectacularly, with many mainstream outlets focusing just as much on an extraordinary outburst by Sir Dave Brailsford against a cycling journalist as they are on Chris Froome’s thoughts on the final week of the race.

Ahead of the team departing on a training ride, Team Sky set up a mixed zone at their hotel near Le Puy en Velay and invited broadcast media along to speak to race leader Chris Froome. Journalists from print and media outlets also turned up at the hotel, hoping to grab some quotes.

Among them was Barry Ryan of Cycling News, who was told by Brailsford in front of other reporters that he was unwelcome there. The website says he was told: “You're not invited. We have invited the people we want to speak to. You've been writing shit about me."

Brailsford was apparently unhappy with a feature Ryan wrote before the Tour de France and which was published by Cycling News under the heading, Strong and stable? Dave Brailsford's year of saying nothing.

In response to Brailsford telling him to leave yesterday, Ryan asked what it was he thought was incorrect in the article and was told: "I'm not getting into that. It was opinion, you write shit.

“We make ourselves available, we answer all the questions and you write this shit.”

Cycling News says that Ryan suggested to Brailsford that his attitude was similar to that of Johan Bruyneel who barred Belgian broadcaster Sporza during the 2009 Tour de France.

At the time, Bruyneel was manager of the Astana team in which Lance Armstrong was making his comeback and which also had that year’s overall winner, Alberto Contador.

Brailsford asked: “Are you accusing me of running a doping programme as well?”

Ryan’s response was: “Well, UK Anti-Doping are investigating that ...”

In reply, Brailsford told him, “You can stick it up your arse” and departed.

Besides being reported on in outlets including the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Guardian – whose William Fotheringham had previously noted that it was almost unheard of for a race leader not to give a press conference on the first rest day – yesterday’s incident also got attention on social media.

Among those to share their thoughts was Jonathan Vaughters, whose Cannondale-Drapac team has Rigoberto Uran in fourth place, just 29 seconds off the race lead.

,Others such as Fred Dreier, editor in chief of US-based publication VeloNews, drew parallels with the sport’s past.

Danish commentator and journalist Bryan Nygaard – press officer at Team Sky in its early years – had a suggestion.

Meanwhile, Owen Gibson, head of sport at the Guardian – whose Marina Hyde wrote a particularly scathing piece on the Team Sky boss a fortnight ago – tweeted a link to the Cycling News article, with the words: “Not sure Dave Brailsford is doing himself any favours here.”

One effect of Brailsford’s outburst is to send people off to check what exactly it is that Ryan wrote that could have offended him so much.

Essentially, it’s a summary of many of the stories that have built up over the past year and which have been extensively covered in the specialist and mainstream media.

Those include the therapeutic use exemptions issued to Sir Bradley Wiggins ahead of his participation in the 2011 and 2012 Tour de France and 2013 Giro d’Italia, as well as the contents of that mystery Jiffy Bag.

There’s also reference to the UK Sport-ordered independent review of British Cycling, which described the management of the national team at the time Brailsford led it as “untouchable” in its report published last month.

Those stories, of course, have given rise to questions to which many people – not just journalists, but also fans, people within the sport and even a House of Commons Select Committee – are still awaiting answers.

And that, of course, is the other effect of Brailsford’s outburst yesterday. By seeking to exclude those who might ask awkward questions, he’s ensured thanks to the ensuing coverage that those questions are fresh in everyone’s mind again.

 

Sir Dave Brailsford
Barry Ryan
Team Sky
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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39 comments

Avatar
kitkat replied to Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
4 likes
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

...plenty of reasons to be investigating the activities of Team Sky...  what none of these reasons are however is concrete evidence of wrong doing, or even a smoking gun.

Investigative journalists need to get investigating, do a Walsh, find the evidence. All I see is lazy journalism, asking the same questions to the same people in the same way hoping to get a different response. After a while the only response change will be 'I don't talk to you any more'.

So my call is... journos, get out there and find that smoking gun.

Yes, all of this.

So Team Sky did something that was morally questionable but still 100% within the rules and in Brailsford speak i'm sure they've learnt their lesson

That article in the Guardian is quite nasty, Brailsford is getting a lot of grief there for essentially not saying anything - which he is entitled to do and especially when there is an investigation going on

If the jounralists were worth anything then they'd be busy digging into the other teams for questionable TUE infractions.

But lets not lose sight of what we're talking about; using TUEs within the law if not the spirit of it. Is this really THE worst sporting issue at the moment or are all the journos afraid to have a pop at other sports which barely have a drug policy

Avatar
BarryBianchi replied to kitkat | 6 years ago
2 likes
kitkat wrote:

 Brailsford is getting a lot of grief there for essentially not saying anything - which he is entitled to do and especially when there is an investigation going on
 

You cannot be serious.  He's said nothing DURING the investigation.  His "performance" in front of the Select Committe was as scandeollous as it was embarassing as it was damaging to the world of cycling.  In the words of the then head of anti-doping:

  UKAD chairman Kenworthy said he found the evidence given at the hearing "extraordinary" and "very disappointing".

So much for respecting the sport.

Avatar
madcarew replied to kitkat | 6 years ago
1 like
kitkat wrote:
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

...plenty of reasons to be investigating the activities of Team Sky...  what none of these reasons are however is concrete evidence of wrong doing, or even a smoking gun.

Investigative journalists need to get investigating, do a Walsh, find the evidence. All I see is lazy journalism, asking the same questions to the same people in the same way hoping to get a different response. After a while the only response change will be 'I don't talk to you any more'.

So my call is... journos, get out there and find that smoking gun.

Yes, all of this.

So Team Sky did something that was morally questionable but still 100% within the rules and in Brailsford speak i'm sure they've learnt their lesson

That article in the Guardian is quite nasty, Brailsford is getting a lot of grief there for essentially not saying anything - which he is entitled to do and especially when there is an investigation going on

If the jounralists were worth anything then they'd be busy digging into the other teams for questionable TUE infractions.

But lets not lose sight of what we're talking about; using TUEs within the law if not the spirit of it. Is this really THE worst sporting issue at the moment or are all the journos afraid to have a pop at other sports which barely have a drug policy

So, what you're saying is they should have left Lance alone, and not prodded the bear, because there were easier targets. Lance was the biggest, and arguably worst. We should leave the Capo di capi alone and go after the local shoplifters because....?

Brailsford has it within his power to make this all go away. Give clear, simple, non-obfuscating answers to clear simple questions. He could have done that in the ministerial inquiry.... but didn't. What other possible conclusion can one draw other than there is something to hide. For the record, having personally spoken to a Wada official after the London Games I am sure that Sky are not doing any systematic illegal doping. HOwever, what was said to me was "We don't know what Sy are doing, but if we did, it would probably be illegal". 

Sky has a well publicised "No needles, Zero tolerance" policy.... which they clearly are not sticking to. We as a community who have been lied to badly in the past, have the right to demand fair and clear answers to simple questions. 

Avatar
earth replied to kitkat | 6 years ago
1 like
kitkat wrote:

That article in the Guardian is quite nasty, Brailsford is getting a lot of grief there for essentially not saying anything - which he is entitled to do and especially when there is an investigation going on

If the jounralists were worth anything then they'd be busy digging into the other teams for questionable TUE infractions.

But lets not lose sight of what we're talking about; using TUEs within the law if not the spirit of it. Is this really THE worst sporting issue at the moment or are all the journos afraid to have a pop at other sports which barely have a drug policy

 

British cycling has been doing well for many years now so of course the self-loathers have to try and destroy it.

 

On the one hand I think Dave doesn't need to answer questions except by those in authority.  On the other hand it looks quite odd that Dave cannot see that his actions are raising suspicion and natually so in these few years just after Lance Armstrong.  If the jiffy bag is innocent then why not say what was in it?  Has he told UKAD?  Then there is the doctor who first says he lost his laptop, then he doesn't turn up to the select committee because he is ill.  Odd that these people are not trying to be more transparent in these obviously suspicious times.

Avatar
zanf replied to earth | 6 years ago
1 like
earth wrote:

British cycling has been doing well for many years now so of course the self-loathers have to try and destroy it.

Either you are a shill or completely naive and all you actually know about BC is watching a few races where the winners get medals at the end of it.

Avatar
Leviathan replied to Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
2 likes
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

I actually feel more positively about Brailsford after this. What annoys me about him and Sky has been their lack of emotion and silence... showing a bit of emotion and bitterness is not a bad thing to me. 

As I've said many times... there are plenty of reasons to be investigating the activities of Team Sky...  what none of these reasons are however is concrete evidence of wrong doing, or even a smoking gun.

Investigative journalists need to get investigating, do a Walsh, find the evidence. All I see is lazy journalism, asking the same questions to the same people in the same way hoping to get a different response. After a while the only response change will be 'I don't talk to you any more'.

So my call is... journos, get out there and find that smoking gun. 

 

I agree that this is a sign of righteous indignation not bullying. Where is the threat to the journalist? DB is excluding him, not suing him. People like the USPS/Sky comparison but really how is this the same? Where is the omerta? The people loosing their jobs and being ridden out of the peloton? Like Jimmy said, we really need more evidence. Brailsford and Froome must be sick of it if they are innocent, I can understand him snapping back, that in itself isn't proof of anything.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 6 years ago
19 likes

What a ridiculous piece of advice from Brailsford.

That is the first place they will look.

Avatar
whobiggs replied to Mungecrundle | 6 years ago
0 likes
Mungecrundle wrote:

What a ridiculous piece of advice from Brailsford. That is the first place they will look.

 

Avatar
Alessandro | 6 years ago
5 likes

What a silly boy and this can only come back to bite him. I hope that Team Sky is innocent and clean but Brailsford really is doing his best to make the team appear like USPS. 

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