Team Sky will Learn from its Mistakes
Based in Britain, Team Sky was formed at the start of the year for the sole purpose of producing the first ever British Tour de France winner ‘by 2015.' Team principal Dave Brailsford is as ambitious as his young riders, but admitted to his former team manager Hans-Michael Holczer that creating a successful professional team was indeed a very difficult job, just as he’d been warned.
Giving every advantage he could think of to his riders, Brailsford still had to watch the team leader, Bradley Wiggins, struggle in the mountains and drop out of the running for a good overall classification. Struggling with what feels like months of work for nothing, Brailsford is now trying to accept that podium spots and jerseys are completely out of reach for Team Sky.
The only remaining victory in reach for Team Sky is a stage victory, and even that is a long shot. The team principle knows that he may have to be happy taking home nothing but the lessons learned about the biggest and most important race in professional cycling.
"You can plan as much as you like but there is nothing like doing this race and then going back and reflecting on what you didn't know and learning from it,” said Brailsford. “Even after two weeks, I'm not afraid to say there's a lot we didn't know," he said.
The Team Sky principle admits that he is a novice at the Tour de France and a novice at running a team, but he feels he’s surrounded himself with a great group of people who help each other learn how to get the best out of their people.
“It's like the Olympics Games, the first one blows you away but by the time you've done three or four, you just take it on. I guess it's the same here. You have to do the hours and we're doing them … I do think the long term goal of this team is to develop young British riders and see if we can win this race. It's a dream. It might happen, it might not. But it gives us the mission," said Brailsford.
Bradley Wiggins stands in 21st in the overall classification, and his teammate Thomas Lovkvist stands in 17th. Geraint Thomas held the young rider classification for four stages, and is in 15th in the green jersey competition. Team Sky is in 10th place overall.
Wiggins set to target stage win
Brailsford often rides in the team car, so he has seen how Wiggins has struggled on the climbs, but he still has hope.
"Bradley is not going as well as we hoped he would do but you've just got to stand there and take it on the chin. There's no point in making excuses," Brailsford said. "Nobody wants a lukewarm hero and so if Brad has the legs and is up for it, then in the coming days, I think he would like to get up the road and go down fighting than just riding and getting 20th. That's our goal for the rest of the Tour."
Brailsford has rallied the Team Sky riders to keep fighting and targeting stage victories. After Thursday’s final mountain stage is an opportunity to get in an attack. After that, there are two more flat stages for Wiggins to clear his name.
"When you're back is against the wall, what do you do? Do you quit? Or do you keep on fighting? What we've talked about is keeping on fighting. You've got to give 100 percent. That's all you can ask of the guys," said Brailsford.
Brailsford is more concerned about the attitude of the team than about the final numbers. He had no problem announcing before the Tour that they were going for the podium ‘by 2015,’ so why should he have a problem with it now? He’ll keep working to keep morale up and keep fighting through the final week and maybe even squeeze in that elusive stage win.
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