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news
Dave Brailsford faces the press, Paris, October 2012 (copyright Simon MacMichael)Sir Dave Brailsford apologises to reporter for “Stick it up your arse” tirade
Sir Dave Brailsford has apologised to a reporter for a four-letter tirade on Monday’s second rest day at the Tour de France in which he accused the journalist of “writing shit about me” and told him to “stick it up your arse.”
The Team Sky principal made his comments as riders including race leader Chris Froome were being interviewed by broadcast media before setting off for a ride from the team hotel in Le Puy en Velay.
> "Stick it up your arse" - Sir Dave Brailsford lashes out at reporter
Digital and print journalists also descended on the hotel, with Brailsford telling one, Barry Ryan of Cycling News, that he was not welcome there, apparently due to an article published shortly before the race began that was critical of the UCI ProTeam’s boss.
“You're not invited,” Brailsford told Ryan. “We have invited the people we want to speak to. You've been writing shit about me."
When Ryan asked Brailsford to explain why he was unhappy, he 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.”
Ryan put it to Brailsford that his attitude was similar to that of Johan Bruyneel at the 2009 Tour de France, when the Belgian was managing the Astana team that included the winner of that year’s race, Alberto Contador as well as Lance Armstrong, making his return to the race after a three-year absence.
Brailsford said to him: “Are you accusing me of running a doping programme as well?”
Ryan’s replied: “Well, UK Anti-Doping are investigating that ...”
That prompted Brailsford to say, as he walked away: “You can stick it up your arse.”
BBC Sport reports that Brailsford has now apologised to Ryan.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I can be a bit stubborn at times.
“We're in battle mode, but I let myself down."
"It wasn't very clever and I wouldn't want my daughter doing that.
"I went and apologised to the person involved," he added.
Unusually for a team with a rider holding the yellow jersey, Team Sky has restricted access to journalists on both rest days at this year’s race – something the Guardian’s William Fotheringham says is almost unprecedented.
For a team that was derided at their launch ahead of the 2010 season to win the Tour de France with a British rider within five years, Team Sky managed that twice within that period, with Sir Bradley Wiggins winning in 2012 and Chris Froome taking the title the following year.
Froome missed out in 2014, abandoning in the opening week, but this afternoon, barring mishap on the final processional stage into Paris, will be crowned champion for the fourth time in his career and the third time in succession.
Over the past year, however, the revelation that Wiggins obtained a therapeutic use exemption for a powerful corticosteroid to combat allergies ahead of the 2011 and 2012 editions has cast a shadow over his victory, as has the controversy over the contents of a Jiffy Bag containing medicine for him delivered to Team Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné.
Brailsford was quizzed on those issues last December by a House of Commons Select Committee whose chair, Damien Collins, was unimpressed with his responses, and the issues are also the subject of an ongoing investigation by UK Anti-Doping.
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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19 comments
Sky have made some silly mistakes and left themselves open to controversy and suspicion. I'm not a Sky fan boy but I can't see anywhere near enough pieces of evidence to convince me that they are running a doping program, either currently or at some point in the past. There is another point to consider which I feel supports their innocence and that is if they were doping than surely the British press would have sniffed out more serious details than what has been revealed so far. The lamentable yet simple truth is that it would be an enormous scandal of the type that the UK papers lust for.
Is there a clean team anywhere out there in the pro cycling world? With so much to play for it is unlikely. So even if Team Sky isn't clean, then are they really any worse than the rest? Just saying...
Sigh -same applies to cortisone if you bother to look - in most cases its fine to use unless you are injecting it during a race in funny places to be specific!
Considering the criticism of journalists about getting research done etc Can I ask where you got the information that Tramadol is banned?
I checked in the manner suggested by 100% Me etc and...
http://www.globaldro.com/UK/search/ingredient-status/NngrQjRycFNnMXdwWFF...
The above says is is Not prohibited
BTW I don't condone its use in the manner I have seen to be suggested that SKY were using it - that is to enable performance enhancement. Its a painkiller with it seems potentially some very nast side effects of depression.
All that said I do NOT think it is right to criticise professional sports and their teams for trying to do the best performance possible within the rules. I have seen nothing that demonstrates that SKYand BC have ever done that in this modern era.
Stop talking down amazing performances based on meticulous and professional training, preperation and discipline.
tramadol and cortisone use are both against the MPCC code which is why Sky won't sign up to it.
Plenty of reasons to be suspicious of Team Sky.... plenty to suggest there is skullduggery going on somewhere, or there certainly was.
However, as yet there is no evidence of actual doping, and certainly no evidence of systematic doping.
So my opinion remains the same as last week... journos go do your work, look up David Walsh for an example of how it should be done.
One big difference between USPS and SKY is the lack of ex SKY riders being popped for doping.
I'd also say that riders leaving SKY have been able to subsequently improve their riding, which again would indicate a lack of anything too systematic / ground breaking going on.
However, to counter that... riders from some fairly shadey backgrounds have come to SKY and continued to perform at the same level as always... which ha sto be questionned.
Aaah...
Moneky.jpg
I have nothing but praise for the whole of Team Sky, I think what they've done in the last few years is awesome and I'm in awe. I hope they all continue to stick 2 fingers up at the naysayers and keep on winning.
Why apologise.. when veiled accusations of doping are made without evidence .. i would ban the journalist from my press conference and not allow back in until he can substanstiate . Particularly when this years tour is about Froome and not the 2012 issue .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7fV-48DT3E
Right ... like this???
When Walsh was questioning LA about drug use, there was evidence, LA's positive for cortisone which was hushed up by Verbruggen, for starters. Read Walsh's book and you'll understand the difference between that era and this era.
No need to apologise
Uhm, there is clear evidence of the use of:
- Cortisone
- Tramadol
By Sky. The former via TUEs of somewhat questionable timing, and in a form that is far more powerful than warranted for the complaint. The latter before it was outlawed.
Further, there is a delivery of testosterone patches to Team Sky's doctor, for which the explanation is that it was a "mistake". Further, Sky's results weren't great, until they hired a doctor who was intimately familiar with the, uhm, performance needs of cycling (and Brailsford was well aware of the role of doctors in cycling's dodgy past, for he had spoken of it before then and the need for Sky to not go down that path!).
I read Walsh and Ballester's book, and the smoke around Sky isn't far off the smoke that was around USPS way back then.
Sky fans will often overlook things like this though as it simply doesn't fit with their "clean" narrative.
It's sad now that every great victory has an air of susupicion over it but that's cycling. 28 years of it has taught me to just watch it without expectations!
No need to apologise, Sir Dave.
Totally agree, some reporters do write utter shite about Sky.
You've got something on your nose
No final timetrail report from road.cc? Well I have to say I think the booing from the french crowds towards Chris Froome is an utter shame. I hope he goes on to become the first person to win the tour 7 times!
Apparently there's a bike race taking place in France. A tour of.
Have yet to watch the highlights, but live viewing told me a French dude squeezed onto the podium. Some bloke in yellow finished up his derriere. I think.
I think Cycling News should take this apology with good grace, accept the high stress that Mr. Brailsford was under, and reciprocate by sending him an invitation to their annual dinner through the post... in a jiffy bag, also containing a tube of a suitable lubricant should he decide to follow his own advice.