Who is Dave Brailsford, what’s Sky’s ‘marginal gains’ philosophy and how does he know Sir Jim Ratcliffe?

4 months ago 33

SIR DAVID BRAILSFORD is set to be brought in by Sir Jim Ratcliffe now he has competed his Manchester United takeover.

The current manager of Team Sky led Great Britain to an astounding 14 Olympic medals in Beijing back in 2008, and could soon be joining up at the new era of United.

Who is Dave Brailsford?

The 59-year-old began his long career in cycling competing in amateur racing in France for four years.

Brailsford was initially introduced to British Cycling as an advisor in 1997.

He swiftly moved his way up the ladder to become programme director and eventually performance director in 2003.

Team GB won two gold medals in cycling at the 2004 Olympic games, and that success continued to grow in 2008 and 2012 under Brailsford.

In 2010 he was scouted as Team Sky’s manager – eventually resigning from Team GB in 2014.

What is the Team Sky manager’s ‘marginal gains’ philosophy?

The two-time Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award winner is famous for reinventing British cycling – focusing on technology and psychology.

He also developed a ‘marginal gains’ philosophy for British Cycling.

In 2012 he explained: “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

How does Sir Jim Ratcliffe know Dave Brailsford?

The billionaire is keen to add Dave Brailsford to his team after his takeover at Old Trafford as he looks to build a world-class line-up behind the scenes.

Brailsford has a remarkable record at improving sports teams over the years, with the most obvious improvements coming in British Cycling.

The pair have already worked alongside each other in the past, back in 2019 they partnered up following Ineos’ takeover of the Sky cycling team.

What did Dave Brailsford said about the Bradley Wiggins controversy?

Team Sky were recently cleared of an investigation into the contents of a jiffy bag carried by cyclist Bradley Wiggins.

A suspect package was sent to Sky in 2011 to treat Wiggins, but UKAD recently confirmed no sufficient evidence of the contents of the bag was found.

Brailsford backed his rider throughout the saga, in 2016 he told the Guardian: “There’s a rider, there’s a doctor. They agree to visit a consultant. The consultant’s report is pretty categorical in saying there is an issue here and I recommend the following medication.

“That then goes to the anti-doping authorities. They say yes, we agree with this. Or they can say no. There are different steps to this process that should give us confidence. I believe in that process. I still do.”