Sir Dave Brailsford, team principal

Sir Dave Brailsford regularly likens his role to that of an ‘orchestra conductor’ and, after two days at the Tenerife training camp, the analogy makes perfect sense. The team is big and, with every rider and member of staff following different programmes, there are little hubs of Team Sky literally spread all over the world at any one time.

Brailsford oversees a conference call every Monday with senior staff where the past week is discussed. ‘I go to where I think I need to be, where there are issues, where I can add value,’ he says. ‘I leave it until very late and make a judgment. I spent a month in Italy for the Giro, a day at home, then to Barcelona, a meeting in London, then on the Dauphine [in France] and on and on it goes. I’m not the guy who picks up the trumpet and starts playing – I just make sure the best trumpet player is in the right place.’

The people entrusted with the key instruments are expected to be innovative and open-minded. ‘You have to buy into the whole philosophy, always improving, not just doing something because that is what they did 20 years ago,’ says the Welsh rider Geraint Thomas. ‘There are a lot of those sorts of guys in cycling. He [Brailsford] wants to find people who are willing to take criticism and have a go.’

Brailsford’s own personal journey reflects that. Once embarrassed by his father’s ‘horrendous lycra’, he took up cycling following a knee injury playing football and, at the age of 18, bought a one-way ticket to Grenoble with the intention of winning the Tour de France. He was not good enough but began working in British cycling just as lottery funding transformed what was feasible.

Under Brailsford’s leadership, the team went from winning just two gold medals in 18 summer Olympic Games between 1924 and 2000 to accumulating 18 in the three Olympics since. Team Sky then produced consecutive British winners of the Tour de France. ‘In the main, I’m very optimistic, glass half-full, and think “we can do anything”,’ says Brailsford. ‘When it doesn’t work, when we lose, it’s agonising. Success comes from a journey of really horrific, up-all-night, worrying.’