
As always with Dave Brailsford, the big questions remain unanswered
For the past two weeks I've avoided the Ineos Grenadiers bus. The one time I stopped and chatted, it was because he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I am talking about Sir Dave Brailsford, who returned to the team two weeks ago after five years away. Journalists who have spoken to him sense that he has come back from his time in football a little chastened.
Cycling was the hometown girl he fell in love with as a teenager. They enjoyed a great life until his head was turned by a more glamorous woman from a very rich family. We are speaking, of course, of Manchester United. Alas, the rich lady grew tired of him. So here he is back with his first love, trying to start again, but she has changed, grown older and is not quite who she once was.
I avoid Brailsford because I know he is not going to answer questions that need to be answered. At the time he founded the professional cycling team Team Sky, he insisted that it would never cross the ethical line. In 2016 my colleague Matt Lawton discovered that in 2011 a secret package had been couriered by a staffer at British Cycling from Manchester to Team Sky, who were then racing in France.
When Lawton asked Brailsford about the package, the Team Sky boss said: 'If you didn't write the story, is there anything else that could be done?'
Decide for yourself what he meant by that. As you can about the 40mg injections of the corticosteroid triamcinolone, given to Bradley Wiggins days before the start of the Tour de France in 2011 and 2012. Team Sky claimed in an application to cycling's governing body that the rider needed the medication for therapeutic reasons. Wiggins suffered from allergies. Medical experts question the appropriateness of the treatment, especially as triamcinolone is also a performance-enhancing drug.
A 2018 report by the digital, culture, media and sport select committee into Team Sky and British Cycling was damning. It said the use of the triamcinolone 'was not to treat medical need, but to improve his [Wiggins's] power-to-weight ratio ahead of the race'.
It added: 'This does not constitute a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency [Wada] code, but it does cross the ethical line that David Brailsford says he himself drew for Team Sky. In this case, and contrary to the testimony of David Brailsford in front of the committee, we believe that drugs were being used by Team Sky, within the Wada rules, to enhance the performance of riders, and not just to treat medical need.'
There are, of course, many other unresolved issues. Why did Dr Richard Freeman, then a senior doctor working with both Team Sky and British Cycling, order a consignment of 30 testosterone sachets in 2011 and have them delivered to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester? After the testosterone was discovered, Freeman lied that it had been sent to him in error and the head of medicine at Team Sky, Dr Steve Peters, asked Freeman to get the supplier to confirm this in writing.
Peters would later say that he didn't tell Brailsford about the testosterone. That was remarkable. And, of course, the testosterone delivery had been ordered by Freeman. It was strange that Freeman should have been the one person who had to properly explain his part in all that went down at Team Sky and British Cycling. In a 'fit to practice' case initiated by the General Medical Council and processed by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, the tribunal concluded that the testosterone was ordered for the purpose to giving it to an athlete.
Freeman lost his licence to practice. Mary O'Rourke, the barrister in Freeman's corner, believed Brailsford should have been a witness at the tribunal. 'Dave Brailsford is the spectre missing at these proceedings,' she said in her summing-up. 'He would have been able to answer an awful lot of questions about what was going on at British Cycling and Team Sky.'
Subsequent to losing his medical licence, Freeman received a four-year sport's ban from UK Anti-Doping. Freeman loses his career, Brailsford gets a knighthood. The knight of the realm has never said a bad word about his team's former doctor.
You may wonder why all this is recalled right now. Well, other journalists were beating a path to the Ineos Grenadiers bus last week. They were lining up to ask Brailsford about his head soigneur, David Rozman. An investigation by the German state broadcaster ARD had linked, but not named, a Team Sky soigneur with the doping doctor Mark Schmidt.
At a Munich court in January 2021, Schmidt was found guilty of 24 counts of using doping products and given a prison sentence of four years and ten months. During the case there was evidence of 2012 mobile phone messages between Schmidt and a person involved in cycling. According to an ARD report, the person Schmidt was communicating with worked for Team Sky.
They said they knew the person, but because of a statute of limitation law in Germany, they could not name the Sky employee. Last weekend the Dublin-based Sunday Independent said the person involved was Rozman, then the Sky soigneur who is still with Ineos Grenadiers. The most concerning message was one from Rozman to Schmidt asking if he still had the 'stuff that Milram [a team he had previously worked with] used' and if he could 'bring it for the boys'.
Later in the week Ineos issued a statement saying it was aware of the allegations surrounding a team member: 'These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority, however the team has made a formal request to the International Testing Agency (ITA) to request any information it considers relevant. The team reiterates its policy of zero tolerance to any breach of the applicable Wada codes, historic or current.'
That wasn't an untypical response from the team. Ineos could have said it had spoken to Rozman and asked if he had been party to the now much publicised conversation with Schmidt in 2012. Had he written those messages? If he had, what did he mean when asking Schmidt if he could bring stuff 'for the boys'? Rozman, they say, remains part of their Tour de France team.
And so the journalists at the Tour tried to get some answers. The first question to Brailsford about the latest controversy drew a straightforward: 'I am not commenting on that.' Another journalist wondered if it was fair to have the staff member (Rozman) taking so much heat? Brailsford replied: 'Did you hear what I just said? I won't be commenting.'
As he retreated to the sanctuary of the bus, Brailsford said, 'F***ing hell, guys, come on.'
The questions, as always, remain unanswered.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
Viktor Gyokeres signs five-year deal with Arsenal as lengthy transfer saga comes to an end
Arsenal have completed the signing of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting, for a final fee of €63m (£55m) with a further €10m to potentially be paid in add-ons (totalling £64m). The 27-year-old has signed a five-year contract. The purchase marks the end of an 18-month hunt for a number-nine from Arsenal, who have been insistent on signing a goalscorer for the 'here and now'. Gyokeres' arrival also marks the end of a hard period of negotiations with Sporting, who were insistent on more achievable add-ons. At one point, the deal dragged on and stalled over a potential add-on of €5m. Sporting's relationship with the player's camp ended with tension, such was Gyokeres' desire to push for a move to Arsenal. Mikel Arteta has been struck by the Swedish international's levels of self-motivation, which was one of many reasons the club ultimately went for Gyokeres over options such as Ollie Watkins, Goncalo Ramos and - above all - Leipzig 's Benjamin Sesko. The signing is an indicator of sporting director Andrea Berta's new influence in the club, as he was a big backer of Gyokeres. Arsenal had previously put a lot of work into the 22-year-old Sesko, but Berta felt Leipzig's €80m price was far too high for a forward whose primary attraction was his future ceiling. Gyokeres is already in his prime, having scored 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting over the last two seasons. He has even outscored Alexander Isak for Sweden of late, hitting 12 in his last 17 appearances. Arteta and the Arsenal analytics staff were similarly convinced, for a forward who they hope can deliver a first league title in 22 years.


The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Arsenal complete £64m deal to sign striker Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting
Arsenal have finally solved their striker conundrum by completing the signing of Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting Lisbon for an initial £55m. The 27-year-old Sweden international, who fired Sporting to the title last season with 39 goals and struck a Champions League hat-trick against Manchester City, is understood to have signed a five-year deal at the Emirates. Gyökeres' transfer, which could end up costing as much as £64m with performance-related add-ons, takes Arsenal's close-season spending to the region of £200m. He becomes Mikel Arteta's sixth summer signing and follows defender Cristhian Mosquera (£13m), midfielder Martin Zubimendi (£60m), goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5m), midfielder Christian Norgaard (£10m) and forward Noni Madueke (£48.5m) in moving to the Emirates. Arsenal confirmed the news with a brief post on X which read: 'This is where you need to be. Viktor Gyökeres is a Gunner.' Gyökeres will be expected to meet up with his new colleagues in Arsenal's ongoing pre-season tour of Singapore and Hong Kong. The Gunners face Newcastle in the Singapore National Stadium on Sunday before the concluding game of their tour, against Tottenham in Hong Kong on 31 July. Gyökeres moved to Brighton from Swedish side Brommapojkarna in January 2018, but spent time on loan at St Pauli and then Swansea and Coventry, before making a permanent move to the Sky Blues in July 2021. After Coventry were beaten on penalties by Luton in the 2023 Championship playoff final at Wembley, Gyökeres completed a £20.5m switch to Sporting. He scored a remarkable 97 goals in 102 matches for the Portuguese side. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Arsenal spent the concluding months of last season without a recognised striker following long-term injuries to Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz. Even before then, Arsenal were in desperate need of a reliable scorer, and Arteta will hope his new signing can fire him to his first silverware since he won the FA Cup in 2020, and end the club's two-decade wait for a Premier League title. Arsenal's new sporting director, Andrea Berta, has wasted little time in strengthening a squad which has finished runners-up in the league for the past three seasons. Gabriel and Myles Lewis-Skelly have also put pen to paper on new contracts in the off-season, with a long-term extension for teenager Ethan Nwaneri believed to be all-but completed.


BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
Arsenal seal Gyokeres deal - send us your thoughts
So, Arsenal have finally signed striker Viktor Gyokeres from Sweden international scored 54 goals in 52 games last season and has found the net 97 times in 102 matches during his two seasons in Portugal, firing Sporting to two league Gyokeres the right man to fill Mikel Arteta's gap in the number nine role? And what does a successful first season look like?Let us know here