Sky win 'career highlight' for Brailsford

Dave Brailsford has described yesterday's debut win in Adelaide for Team Sky as “one of the highlights of my career.”

The team's principal was speaking after Sky took first and second place in the Cancer Council Helpline Classic, Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton crossing the finishing line easily ahead of the pack.

"Victories like this are storybook stuff and, psychologically, winning our first-ever race is brilliant for the team's morale,” Brailsford told theIndependent. “The lads worked hard on doing a good lead-out, they had a clear plan and they executed it perfectly.”

"We knew exactly who was going to do what, and we dominated the whole sprint from start to finish."

"At the same time, we've answered our critics who said our plans to do well was just marketing hype."

While all eyes are now turning to the main event – the start of the six-day Tour Down Under – Brailsford is sanguine about the hopes pinned on Sky following the Classic. "There's no more pressure on us after this,” he said. “Our aim will be just to ride well, take it on the stage by stage and do what we can."