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Brian Cookson at the site in Paris where the UCI was founded (source Brian Cookson Images, Flickr)Brailsford calls on Cookson to show strong leadership in war on drugs cheats
Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford has called on UCI president Brian Cookson to show strong leadership skills to enable cycling to win the battle against the drugs cheats, and says the governing body needs to “step up their game.”
In an interview at the team’s training camp in Mallorca, Brailsford was asked by BBC sport’s Matt Slater for his views on Astana.
Last month, the Kazakh team was granted a UCI WorldTour licence for the coming season despite two of its riders, plus three from its development squad, failing doping controls in 2014.
Slater noted that its squad includes Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali, and asked what message that sent out about the sport.
Brailsford declined to single out “any individual or any team,” but in his subsequent comments it was clear he was referring to UCI president Cookson, who promised to crack down on dopers ahead of his election in 2013.
Replacing Pat McQuaid, Cookson assumed the reins of the sport at a time when it was still reeling from the fallout of the US Postal scandal that resulted in Lance Armstrong being banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.
“If you are in charge of governance, and you want to create a credible sport, then you should have the rules and the leadership skills to be able to deliver a credible sport,” said Brailsford.
“That’s what we want. We’re trying to play our own leadership role as much as we can as a team, we’re part of Velon and we want to move that forward as part of a collective group of teams,” he went on.
“But ultimately it’s the UCI governing the sport, and everybody involved wants a credible sport. They need to step up their game and make sure that’s what they deliver.
“Great leaders, they don't find excuses why they can't do something. Sometimes you've got to break down some barriers and get over some obstacles and find ways of doing things to get things to a place where they haven’t been before.
“That’s what we want from the UCI. The people who lead a sport, or lead change in industry or in any walk of life, they have to be strong characters and they have to step up and be counted, and deliver what they said they were going to do.”
Under Cookson, who led British Cycling as Brailsford helped turn Great Britain into a world powerhouse in cycling, the UCI created the Cycling Independent Reform Commission.
The commission has been hearing evidence regarding doping in recent months and is due to report early this year.
Last week, the UCI announced new anti-doping rules to fall into line with the provisions of the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code.
Cookson said last month that Astana is “on probation,” and the UCI has made it clear that any repeat offences will result in the team’s licence being reviewed once again.
Brailsford said that Sky supported the governing body in its efforts to clean up cycling, but called on it to show greater leadership.
“Let’s sort our sport out, we’ll support them [the UCI], I think some of the changes they’ve made just recently have been very welcome, but we’ve got more to do, let’s face it.
“We’re looking to them to lead the way,” he added.
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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13 comments
Brailsford should be more concerned about the amount of asthma sufferers on his team.
Is not Dave B/Sky the only ones to have fired said doctors, DS's etc for the sole reason of having a dubious background??
So of course, we need to be critical of Team Sky, and not those other teams who snapped up the very same personnel sent packing from Sky....
Team Sky might not be whiter than white, but they are cleaner than most, surly that is a good thing?
Brailsford is bankrolled by Murdoch,his opinion means shit
Well there you go, the voice of expertise speaks at last. I take it everything he's done for British Cycling both track and road count for nothing as well.
And with that comment your opinion means about the same.
It's easy to criticise.
Brian Cookson is only too aware how people feel:
More in this article from last week:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/brian-cookson-explains-r...
I agree with Brailsford that Cookson ducked the Astana decision. Let's hope Cookson has just delayed making the right decision until he gets his hands on the Italian evidence.
Sky have to compete against other teams, and if some teams are cheating, of course he is going to speak up about it.
As other commenters have said, no doubt Sky made mistakes in the past. But what about recent signings, from what I think of as doping teams? Is Brailsford completely sure that all these riders have a clean past?
I don't care what Brailsford or Cookson say, it's my opinion that Astana should be thrown out, even though it's not likely to happen.
Good job the UCI follow procedures and protocol then, rather than listen to opinions on web forums!
Was DB aware at the time of hiring that those staff members were guilty of doping?
Not all all, everyone is open to criticism and those at the top will face the glare more than others. I just find it a little galling that DB tells the UCI they need to do more, whilst hiring ex-dopers, dodgy doctors and apparently failing to conduct even basic background checks. That's fine, but SKY's PR machine would have us believe they are cleaner than clean when in fact they appear only to talk a good game half the time.
That's not to say they are the worst offenders, far from it. The majority of pro teams seem to have no public stance on the subject at all and omertà lives on....
Well, that kind of lets the UCI off doing anything about the doping issue then; just blame Team SKY and we can all move on... not sure I buy in to that personally.
Whilst I don't deny Brailsford won't have played his part, the same can be said of everyone involved with the sport, including us, the humble spectator.
Should no one criticise, or is the job of everyone to stand up and say we want to see more done to overcome these challenges?
Perhaps Dave could help the battle for credible cycling by not hiring riders / doctors / DS's with a very dubious background, then fudging the media response when these failings are brought to light?
His own appointments have made a mockery of their 'zero-tollerance' approach and you certainly do not need the benefit of hindsight to know that Lienders, Yates, et al had no place in a totally clean team. A 2 minute google search would have helped!
He is quite right that the UCI should have done more after the Katushia/CAS debacle to prevent a repeat, but you need to have your own house in order if you are going to criticise others?