Team Sky have declined to comment on the takeover of backers Sky plc by US cable giant Comcast, but insiders said they were confident the team would be unaffected.

James Murdoch, Sky plc’s 45-year-old chairman, resigned from the company’s board on Tuesday along with six other directors following the £29.7 billion deal.

Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, had been one of Team Sky’s staunchest supporters during their recent controversies. He backed them when the scandal surrounding Sir Bradley Wiggins’s Therapeutic Use Exemptions, the bullying probe at British Cycling, and the UK Anti-Doping investigation into Team Sky and British Cycling were all at their height.

Insiders, however, insist Team Sky have always been more Jeremy Darroch’s project than Murdoch’s - Darroch is the chief executive of Sky plc - and they say their understanding is that the team will be allowed to continue do their jobs.

That remains to be seen but Team Sky are certainly thinking and acting long-term. Earlier this summer, Sir Dave Brailsford’s team agreed a lease at the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance. The lease is understood to be at least five years, which would take it up to the end of what was being spoken about as Team Sky’s “secured funding cycle” of 2024.