Time for French to shower Team Sky with some respect

It is a dichotomy — romance against efficiency, passion versus science — that makes for timely discussion given that Team Sky return to the roads of France this weekend for the first time since last summer’s highly-charged Tour.

Urine was thrown in the faces of Chris Froome and his fellow riders along with punches and spit. Many spectators shouted “dopé!” fuelled by accusations on mainstream French television that Froome’s victory warranted mistrust.

The (entirely unsubstantiated) suspicion of doping was wrapped up in a resentment of Sky as this crushing, dominant force, their black jerseys gathered at the front, controlling the race, killing the spectacle.

“I think we are efficient,” Brailsford notes. “And when you are really efficient, it looks like a machine, automatic, less human.”

Indeed, some cynics see it as so robotic as to be almost Armstrong-esque. It brings us back to that book, with Ware writing of the Texan’s dominance: “Beyond the blatancy of his doping, his fault was the same; his wins seemed clinical and formulaic, not born out of some greater mythic truth.” Not epic on a poetic scale but “a Die Hard sequel”.

Unsurprisingly, Sky regard any comparisons with that era as outrageously unfair but they are realistic enough to know that the perception, and suspicion, is out there; damned for the very efficiency, marginal gains which are their great virtue, and suspected of much worse.

Brailsford insists he has more important things to worry about than popularity but it is bound to hurt him given the painstaking years of labour.

In his mind, he is the head of a team who aspire not only to be one of the greatest in cycling but renowned across world sport. He believes that he runs an outfit that has helped to drag cycling out of the worst of the doping era and is at the vanguard of a changing sport.

He has ample reason to believe that he, and Team Sky, are a force for good. “Winning the Tour gives you a voice. It’s a privilege,” he says. “I think a lot about that, what we do with that voice. How do I help the sport grow, improve? I am only in it for a limited time. I’d like to think I can help it get to a better place.”

Yet as Sky return to France on Sunday for the start of Paris-Nice (which they have won three times in the past four years, like the Tour), the challenge of disarming their critics remains as tough as winning the Tour itself.

To that end, Froome has already submitted himself to independent physiological testing. Under pressure to disclose more data, Brailsford says that he has a meeting in a fortnight with Brian Cookson, president of the UCI, the world governing body, to discuss his proposal that all teams be required to release performance numbers, such as power.

“Brian recognises that this is an issue which shouldn’t rest with one guy, one team,” Brailsford says. “It’s a sports-wide issue to enhance credibility across the whole of cycling.”

One thing he will not do is go down the route of signing a French rider simply to buy a quieter life. “There’s plenty of talent in France,” he says, “but I’m not about to hire a rider just for PR.”

Brailsford has his own method of addressing roadside critics, saying that he will go up to hecklers at the Tour and ask them to explain their antipathy. “People think they can behave outside the norm in a crowd,” he says. “So if I am riding up a hill in the morning before a stage and I hear something, I’ll frequently go back and ask them, ‘why have you said that?’

“Ninety per cent back down, apologise, but you can’t stop for everyone. I am not after a fight but when you get accused, it brings out that open emotion. I feel passionately that I want to educate people that we are doing it right.”

He wonders in any case if trouble-seekers will back off this year or at least turn down the volume. Having lived in France himself as a young professional, many old friends contacted him to apologise for the worst excesses in 2015.

He thinks the worst assaults will make many fans realise a line has to be drawn. “It’s like that coin-throwing in football recently,” he said. “It makes everyone sit up and say ‘woah!’

“The reality is that France is my favourite place to race. It’s the home of the sport, the language of the sport, where we all dreamt of riding as youngsters and most fans are great.”

He is confident that Paris-Nice will pass without incident as Geraint Thomas leads a Sky team over eight stages against rivals including Alberto Contador and Tom Dumoulin.

By the time the Tour comes around, he says that people may also have accepted that Sky may be strong but not suspiciously dominant. Froome won last year’s race by only 1min 12sec from Nairo Quintana, clinging to his lead at the end.

“People have this idea that we crushed everyone,” Brailsford says, “but it didn’t feel like that for any of us standing on Alpe d’Huez. Losing felt very close. It came down to racing drama.

“People think we are obsessed with data but it’s human endeavour. You can never replace the sensation, the feel. We put a lot of hard work into planning but we can’t get everything right.

“If the Tour is full of suspense to the last minute, that’s the best scenario.” He pauses. “The best scenario for everyone but me,” he laughs.

As a cyclist, he loves the uncertainty, the romance. It is what sucked him into cycling but his job is to make Sky dominant, to win as early and easily as they can. And they are spectacularly good at it. But the impossible paradox remains in cycling that the better you do, the harder the questions and doubts come. Brailsford acknowledges that there is no easy solution but winning less — or less efficiently — is clearly not the answer.