British Cycling Performance Director Dave Brailsford claims that the British squad is eager for success in this weekend’s World Cup in Manchester as it finally comes down from its post-Beijing high.
Speaking to the website This Is London, Brailsford conceded that the Olympic effect meant that this had been a unique pre-season. "It's been really difficult to get everyone back on track,” he said, “and this season has been different to any other. A lot of these guys came back as big celebrities after Beijing and I think it's taken some of them a bit of time to get used to it.”
Brailsford went on to say that the appetite for success remained strong in the squad. “Everyone's got real hunger and desire - from the riders through to the mechanics," he said, adding that “everyone has had a break and they can't wait to get back into the thick of battle."
Brailsford refused to be drawn on setting medal targets for the World Cup event this weekend, or for the London Olympics in 2012 – perhaps understandably, given that the seven gold-medal haul at Beijing has set a high benchmark.
"There's no point making comparisons as Beijing has absolutely no bearing on London whatsoever,” said Brailsford. “It's not like what we did there is going to give us a headstart. We're starting from scratch and we just have to make our team the best prepared it possibly can be and then take the good and bad of what happens on track."
Of course, while Britain’s Olympic heroes have been enjoying the post-Olympic attention on them, Brailsford has been busy setting up professional road outfit Team Sky ahead of its debut next year.
Brailsford, who acts as Team Principal of the fledgling side, says that the squad has now been finalised, with "one or two riders still to be made public," and British cycling fans will no doubt be wondering whether one of those is Bradley Wiggins, who has been strongly linked with a move from Garmin-Slipstream in recent months.
He also believes that Team Sky will secure a wild-card entry to next season’s Tour de France, although he cautions that “it's dangerous to make predictions," adding that "it's a hell of a race but I think we can make our mark on it. We'll do our damnedest but it's a case of not under-performing rather than trying to do anything magical in our first year."
Team Sky will already have ridden its first Grand Tour by then through the Giro d’Italia which gets under way in Amsterdam in May. Earlier this week, directeur sportive Scott Sunderland was reported as saying that preliminary discussions regarding the identity of the riders who will take part in the race are likely to form part of the agenda at a team meeting next week.
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At the given time of day on that date (8:15 am August 22nd) in that location the sun would be at 53° north, so you'd have to be driving at least...
I said it appears to on the basis of the graph you shared, I was at pains to point out that I hadn't read the article. Thanks for sharing the blog,...
It's not censored if you just pirate it
an example of Kesgraves "best cycling infrastructure in the country" https://maps.app.goo.gl/GsCMbzDUTPdq59qS9
It turns out that that is national police policy. We found out from this process that there is national 'secured by design' policy which causes...
Been available for quite a while, full GRX mechanical 12 speed. Probably around the same time as 105 mechanical 12 speed if I were to guess.
Less harmful citrus degreaser is easy to find at £8 or less for 5 litres. Works ok for me, even diluted up to 4:1. Both paraffin and white spirit...
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And, more seriously, where's the coverage of the closure of the cycle lane which forces you to cycle on the Totton bypass.