Sir Dave Brailsford is credited as one of the principal architects in transforming Great Britain's track fortunes over the last decade and can now claim to have replicated that on the road with Team Sky.
Brailsford was at the centre of a sensational season for British cycling in 2012, with Team Sky capturing a one-two finish at the Tour de France before going on to win eight gold medals at the London Olympic Games.
Often describing himself as an orchestra conductor, Brailsford oversaw the mammoth task of bringing Team Sky together in 2009 and witnessed the squad go from strength to strength over the three seasons that followed before reaching their grand target of a Tour de France victory well ahead of schedule.
The newly-crowned Knight of the Realm is acutely aware that the challenge heading into the 2013 season is how to continue that upward trajectory which saw Team Sky end last year as the number one team in the UCI WorldTour rankings.
“One of my priorities in 2013 will be setting new and clearly defined targets in order to achieve continued levels of improvement,” he said while discussing his objectives for 2013. “Our results in 2012 were fantastic and if we can build on that level of performance in 2013, it will be a fantastic achievement.
“When we launched this team in 2009, our goal was clear – to win the Tour de France with a clean British rider. That clarity gave everyone a focus, and it was that focus which helped us achieve our goal.
“Setting new targets will give the staff and riders a renewed hunger and a desire to achieve new levels of excellence.”
With everything focused on sustained development in 2013, Brailsford has continued to add key figures to his performance team from outside the world of cycling, and feels those appointments will breed further success.
He explains: “People coming in from different sports challenges the status quo, and I consider that a good thing. My job is to blend those experts from other fields with the people who have been in cycling all their lives to create a performance culture that challenges conventional wisdom while not ignoring the learnings of the past.”
