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news
Dave Brailsford and Roberto Mancini (copyright Getty Images)Wiggins: If Brailsford were a football manager, he'd have been sacked
Sir Bradley Wiggins says that Ineos Grenadiers team principal Sir Dave Brailsford – his former boss at British Cycling and Team Sky – would get the sack if he were he a football manager, given the UCI WorldTour outfit’s performance at this year’s Tour de France.
Brailsford - who in the past has swapped management tips with former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini - elected to leave four-time champion Chris Froome and 2018 yellow jersey winner Geraint Thomas out of the line-up for this year’s Tour de France, with the pair instead heading respectively to the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d’Italia.
Instead, team leadership in the French Grand Tour, now in its final week, went to defending champion Egan Bernal – but his hopes of retaining his title were dashed yesterday on the climb of the Grand Colombier.
Team Sky – and latterly Team Ineos – have dominated the yellow jersey over the past decade, with Wiggins’ own victory in 2012 followed up by four in five years by Chris Froome, followed by the win by Thomas in 2018 and Bernal’s triumph last year.
Only Vincenzo Nibali, riding for Astana, was able to break that run, winning in 2014, the year when Froome crashed out injured on the fifth stage of the race.
It's hard to stay on top every year and this year they've just not got it right,” said Wiggins on his Bradley Wiggins Show on Eurosport.
“I don't know what's happened there. For a team that's performance orientated and such planning that goes into their seasons, it's just not worked for them for one reason or another. Had it been football, Dave would be out.”
In a switch of tactics today at the Tour de France, Ineos Grenadiers got three riders in the break, with Richard Carapaz finishing second and Pavel Sivakov fourth.
In footballing terms, it’s something Arsenal fans may be familiar with – switching from a tilt at the Premier League title, to concentrating on the FA Cup, though without the success to date enjoyed in that competition by the North London outfit in recent years.
Wiggins is confident, however, that Brailsford will return to produce teams that can once again dominate cycling’s biggest stage race.
“Dave has been here before and they'll restructure and re-plan and come back next year with a full line-up,” he insisted. “With the world going back to normal, that will help.”
He contrasted the selection problems that Ineos Grenadiers had encountered with concerns over Froome’s recovery from injury and Thomas’s race fitness with the options open to Jumbo-Visma.
The Dutch team has dominated the front of the overall contenders’ group in the mountains in much the same way as Team Sky used to in its heyday, with Wiggins noting that its line-up “was selected last December and it was Primoz Roglic as leader as the winner of the Vuelta.
“I think that's maybe the tightrope Ineos walk sometimes with having so many big leaders,” he added. “There's extra competition within that team for who will take the leadership mantle.”
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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17 comments
Theres not much to say about this, except, who trust Wiggln,s, Jiffy bags, No injections, but found injecting viamin proceeds of charity, went to his sons football club, Bankrupt & wife letf him, now the old boys club gets him on Eurosport.....
All Wiggins does now is moan about the sport that made him.
I read Carl Fogarty's book recently and he said he became bitter about motorcycling once he wasn't in it and his friends had to take him to one side and remind him he was part of the history and should celebrate his part rather than complain about it. Wiggins needs that same talk.
Brailsford probably would have been sacked if he was a football manager rather than a cycling team manager, but that doesn't mean it would have been the right decision. If a football team underperforms there is often a knee-jerk reaction to sack the manager. This hugely benefits the incoming manager as, assuming everything else stays the same, the most likely scenario for a team which has had a random period of below-average performance is 'regression to the mean' - i.e. for performance to move back to the long-term average. The incoming manager generally accepts all the credit for this completely predictable uptick in performance.
Ineos Grenadiers got three riders in the break, with Richard Carapaz finishing second and Pavel Sivakov fourth.
Pretty good effort again today
So, to carry the football analogy a little bit too far, can Brailsford play a few substitutes?
Its quite a good analogy really, I liken the current situation to the man utd class of 92 ( David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, and Paul Scholes). For a long time Ineos/Sky had an almost perfect roster of super domestiques and Froomey, but all good things must come to an end and its a changing of the guard now. The current crop aren't quite there and other teams have closed the gap.
Will we see another Ineos Grand Tour winner ? Personally I doubt it for the next few years, Bernal isn't there yet. Last years tour had an element of luck on his side and a team that were a cut above. Still it makes for interesting viewing and Wiggo is right that had a football manager made the same judgement they'd be fired by now.
Yep, it would have been interesting on the finish of stage 19 that had the freak weather conditions as Bernal is not a good descender. Also they cut the Stage 20 short as well which might have had a knockon.
I expect Ineos will win one of the grands tours this year or next. Thomas looks an ok bet for his next outing.
I may be wrong but I believe that he only has another year on his contract and at his age (34 now) I doubt Ineos will offer him a new one, look at Froome. They've bet big on Bernal and its not paid off (yet).
Wiggins is a bit of a prat. He occasionally talks sense, but it just gets lost in all the nonsense so there's not really any point in taking anything he says seriously. He's becoming the Michael Vaughan of cycling punditry.
Hmm, I read it more as a critique of the way that football teams sack a manager too quickly, rather than giving them time to rework things.
Wiggos talking cobblers. Froome lacks "match" fitness, Thomas admitted he was ropey too, plus the season is condensed and it's impossible for anyone to do the triple this year.
The only real question is how much did he know about Bernal's fitness before the Tour started. Was it a genuine surprise or a calculated gamble? It entirely possible he knew none of his stars were match fit.
if Ineos don't make a better showing in either the Vuelta or the Giro then Brailsford might be in trouble, judging from today though it looks like he might be going for some stage wins in the remaining TDF stages to salvage something from the race.
I haven't seen the Ineos lineup for the Vuelta but I presume Bernal will be in it if Froomes poor recovery continues.
Makes you wonder if they should swap Carapaz out of the Giro for the Vuelta as well rather than putting both their approaching good form leaders in the same race.
Wiggo is talking cobblers? Really?
This is a team with £42m to spend who have been all about marginal gains etc. God alone knows what their training regime has been throughout the lockdown - they have been found seriously wanting. For G to admit that he largely went through the motions during lockdown and didnt really train properly is nothing short of scandalous. It's his job and he's paid millions for it. And the team seemed to have no grip on what was going on. And before anyone alleges it, no I'm not a Sky/Ineos hater - I have been a huge fan and supporter of them. I just find their complete and utter lack of readiness/match fitness very difficult to understand given their ethos and budgets (Froome aside who has done remarkably to recover from the injuries he sustained).
To be fair to Thomas he seems to have exaggerated slightly given his decent performance in the Adriatico.
Dont forget though that there is marginal recovery time from the TDF for the Vuelta or Giro - so splitting a highly skilled team makes sense.
But you do have a point.
Good point about the training during lockdown. Ineos do seem off the pace compared with some other teams, including Jumbo. I don't know if lockdown in Monaco/France was worse than in Spain or Italy, but it certainly wasn't in Columbia, and in any case, indoor trainers are better than nothing. Is there something that can only happen for Ineos riders when they are all in the same place?
Wiggins is unreliable and prone to contradicting himself.
Just because Sky/Ineos have bossed the Tour almost every year since 2012 doesn't mean it has all gone to pot. I'd not be so quick to damn them just because the plan seemingy didn't work, especially since we know so little about what really happens. And what does Thomas's comment of "going through the motions" really mean? We don't know, though people will twist it into a meaning that suits them. I'd not rush to throw stones myself.
What this does show is: 1. having a huge budget does not guarantee anything; 2. riders are human and 3. people make mistakes.
It's a complex sport and so many things can happen - good and bad - and for me the unpredictability of it is part of what makes it so watchable.
(Admittedly, I haven't actually bothered watching the original comments, but from what's quoted above...) isn't that exactly what Wiggins is saying?
It seems like the 'Dave would be out' bit was more of a (throwaway) comment on the short-termism of football. It's just been jumped on by headline writers to imply, spuriously, that he was suggesting that Brailsford should be sacked. But the article itself, as well as Wiggins' comments, actually contradicts that implication.