Dave Brailsford has ended his feud with David Lappartient, the president of world cycling’s governing body, after the pair met for a conciliatory private dinner in the spring.

The first half of last year’s Tour was characterised by a slanging match between the Team Ineos principal and Lappartient after Chris Froome’s salbutamol investigation was dropped by Wada and the UCI.

After Lappartient suggested that “Froome had more financial support to find good experts” Brailsford retaliated by accusing the Frenchman of a “cop-out” and of having a “local French mayor kind of mentality”.

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“I think he is still learning ...,” Brailsford said of Lappartient last July. “The quicker he can get there, and learn what a president of an international federation’s responsibilities are, the better it will be.”

Although the pair had not previously met, their reconciliation apparently occurred in April, which was also around the time Team Sky became Team Ineos.

“We had dinner, shook hands, cleared the air and moved on,” Brailsford said in Brussels. “It’s important we collaborate for the benefit of the sport and I take my responsibility really seriously about that. If I can help or support David in his role then I’m certainly happy to do that.”

On the road there is little doubt Ineos will, despite Chris Froome’s absence through injury, be the team to beat. According to Brailsford, Froome has left hospital and is at home in Monaco beginning his rehab. “He left hospital yesterday and transferred to home,” he said. “That’s a big step. He’s managed to put his feet on the floor for the first time in a long time.”

The Tour starts without the four-times winner and the Ineos co-leaders, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal put on a united front when they met the media. “It’s about trust and the understanding that nobody is going to do anything unexpected,”Brailsford said of their dual leadership. “Clarity is important. When it does get separated at times, as maybe we have had in the past, it’s difficult for the team to know who to get behind so that discussion and trust is fundamental.

“The relationship between these two is very good,” Brailsford said. “They know each other, they’re comfortable together, they communicate together, they’re straight with each other and there’s no bullshit with them.”

“Egan’s a nice guy,” Thomas said. “He’s got morals. Colombians are honest and family-oriented and I definitely feel that with Egan. The biggest thing is that he can speak English really well so we can communicate. That’s the biggest hurdle sometimes when it comes to two different nationalities.”

On the other side of Brussels the Mitchelton-Scott team of the Yates twins, Adam and Simon, was setting out its stall as potential contenders for final victory in Paris.

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“Our No 1 priority is to chase the yellow jersey,” the Yates’ team manager, Matt White, said. “It’s one of the most open Tours de France we’ve seen in the last 10 years and our goal is to give Adam the best support.”

If a sense of unity is on the march in the Ineos camp and at Mitchelton-Scott, a breakdown of relations within the Dimension Data team over the omission of Mark Cavendish from the Tour appears to be reaching critical mass.

In what was an embarrassingly brief and stilted press conference, the team manager, Doug Ryder, opted not to appear and only one rider was willing to comment on Cavendish’s absence.

“It is pretty sad for everybody,” the South African rider Reinardt Janse van Rensburg said. “Cav is a legend of the sport.”