Brailsford's silence speaks volumes on the tasks he faces at Ineos Grenadiers 🇬🇧
'A force of nature' has returned, but so far, the boss has declined to talk to the media
Before and after every Tour de France stage, Dave Brailsford steps off the Ineos Grenadiers team bus to make what appear to be high-level phone calls. We’re talking V-VIP level stuff. iPhone pressed to his ear, a stern expression on his face at all times, and clearly visible to the media, riders, and the thousands of people that form part of the Tour de France entourage, Sir Dave talks, but not to us.
No press, no questions, just a ‘no thank you I’m not here to talk’, is the typical response that the ‘not so secret weapon’, as the team has dubbed him, provides when the press attempt to clarify what he’s accomplished in the weeks since his return from Manchester United and his first forays back into the world of cycling.
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One or two members of the press have talked to Brailsford off-record, which we learn as we scurry back to whatever sweaty press room we’ve been crammed into for each stage. Still, more often than not, or at least when I’ve tried, the boss has declined to talk, called me mate (true), ruffled my hair (less true), and resumed texting, calling or just started chatting to the nearest human in Ineos’s new Adidas attire.
He’s just not that into you, Daniel, I hear you saying, and you’re most definitely right.
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However, we know that Brailsford’s return is having an impact within the Ineos team. Riders and staff discuss a new intensity, highlighting how he has brought his experience to an ailing team that needed direction and help in regaining top form. However, we currently don’t know precisely what his day-to-day duties are and what he thinks of the current squad he’s walked into. How far are Ineos from winning the Tour de France, for example?
Perhaps even Brailsford doesn’t know yet. Maybe he’s still working it out, and perhaps those calls are a daily catch-up with Jim Ratcliffe over details involved in managing one of the biggest cycling teams in the world.
The likely reason for Brailsford’s silence, aside from his dislike for me, is that he’s still figuring it all out.