Britains Cycling superheroes.

funnights74

On BBC2 tonight at 9. Could be interesting.
Sir Dave Brailsford and other insiders tell the story of the extraordinary triumphs and recent controversies that have rocked Britain's cycling medal factory. Sir Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton are considered the two chief architects behind Britain's rise to cycling dominance at both the Olympics and the Tour De France. Both men are driven by a huge hunger to win and dominate their rivals. This relentless desire to beat their opponents led them to create the greatest medal-winning factory in British sporting history.
Yet both men have suffered criticism for the way they ran British Cycling; questions have also been raised about Bradley Wiggins's use of a medical exemption to allow him to take a corticosteroid during the Tour de France. With exclusive interviews and access, they now tell their story - how they built a winning machine on the track and at the Tour and how they respond to the critics of the regimes they built.

velo.2010

Hmm, the way I read that blurb, it appears the film may give them (Sky and British Cycling), the benefit of the doubt - describing how other teams looked for the same advantages. (which completely holes the idea that Sky reinvented the wheel as in 'marginal gains').

I am surprised that Dave B is featured. I wonder how it was put to him, with regards to how the film would be structured, to have him to agree to be in it.

TUE's should only be applied if there is a genuine historical medical issue with each individual. I use Siobhan Marie O'Conner as an example. She has a life long intestinal issue which necessitated the use of medication to just basically function normally before she became a swimmer.

Wiggins had the ability to conjure up an illness exactly a week out from a grand tour, which needed an elephantine dose of cortisone in order to cure it.

CramCycle

I take insulin, but you know, I would literally die if I didn't.

On a more serious note though, seen the interviews with Sutton over the week, he confessed to doping (abusing TUEs to get a competitive advantage). For such a "sophisticated team", they really hire the worst secret keepers in the world. I hate to say it but at least other teams don't treat their fans with such contempt.

Wow Sutton oozes slime doesn't he :mad:

Paul_Mc1988

Pure slimy... hes the perfect example of the difference between a boss and and a leader.

That said he pulled the best from the athletes, but some might say at too high a cost.

Weepsie

And he's now got a job coaching the Chinese team.

NIMAN

Didn't see the programme, but I have always had my doubts about GBs cycling success.

We all think the others are doping, so if the Brits are still beating them, well......

velo.2010

Fairly damning so far. I think a lot of casual fans, who haven't closely followed the story, would be disturbed by the content.

NIMAN

velo.2010 wrote: »

Fairly damning so far. I think a lot of casual fans, who haven't closely followed the story, would be disturbed by the content.

Must get on the BBC player
Was it a one-off?

I think if they'd shown more of the 2 lads before the MP's it would have been much worse.

TUE's never sat with me in any sport, open to as millar said "gaming the system" where in some cases wada and the sports governing body give some a license to dope essentially. DB basically saying were never broke the rules so we can still say we are a clean team :rolleyes:

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

Must get on the BBC player
Was it a one-off?

Not sure actually they mentioned another available on the player about mma and cutting weight which I'd be interested in seeing.

velo.2010

I'm surprised they agreed to do the programme but I guess they wanted one last opportunity to put their point of view across.

Did Brailsford insist on the slow motion 'beauty shots' of him on his bike? Looks fierce fit anyway.

edit; I wouldn't be surprised if there is a longer version to go out on the BBC Player with Pooley discussing the meeting with Cope that never happened among other things.

Macy0161

Not sure about the Sutton stuff to be honest. I think the head of UK sport had it right, to paraphrase, good coach but not the right person to lead.

Again, sky set themselves up as bring different. The tue showed they were actually up to less of a standard than the teams that signed up to the mpcc cortisol rules.

But nothing new for anyone with even a passing interest.

pelevin

Funny how someone like Nibali with Astana got often severely criticised for being untrustworthy, especially compared to the ethical clean team of Sky. There may be plenty reasons for raised eyebrows regarding them but when Nibali came second to the great Chris Horner in the Vuelta, he was entitled to cortisone injections after a severe reaction to a bee or wasp sting. Because they were with the MPCC though, they chose not to receive those injections. Meanwhile high credibility Sky were regimentally dosing Wiggins before Grand Tours with stuff David Millar described as the most potent ped's he ever took, and claiming they weren't members of the MPCC because this would force them to have lower standards than they had themselves. Mind insulting garbage from total hypocrites.

Didn't see the programme but just looked up Matt Lawton who broke the jiffy bag story who says about it:

"As a piece of television, BBC cycling film quite enjoyable. But as a piece of journalism? Good grief. Simply failed to tell the story."

Also quotes Dan Roan of BBC:

"Some viewers unaware of cycling’s recent past may have found BBC2 film interesting & Sutton on TUEs an important admission. But shame filmmakers didn’t feel they had time to mention Leinders, JTL, Edmondson, tramadol, etc & esp’y Freeman (although tbf he was a late withdrawal)"

pelevin

Good article by Irish cycling journalist Shane Stokes at Cycling Tips site on it all:

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/sutton-suggests-getting-tues-was-a-legitimate-competitive-tactic/

CramCycle

Maybe Shane Stokes :pac: Although if Sutton wrote it and confessed by accident, it would not surprise me.

pelevin

CramCycle wrote: »

Maybe Shane Stokes :pac: Although if Sutton wrote it and confessed by accident, it would not surprise me.

Oops!

pelevin

Follow up article by Shane Stokes interviewing Matt Lawton.

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/story-behind-story-journalist-exposed-team-sky/

Obviously Brailsford in the piece was lying in his responses to Lawton about the package - since those fabrications were so eaisiy exposed - and Lawton said he couldn't say in in his pieces but his tip-off had told him the substance in the package was triamcinolone which obviously makes it no longer doping with a TUE or 'gaming the system' as David Millar described it, but punishable doping.

Telling how Shane Sutton said Sky would use the system to take such substances but wouldn't "cross the line." Obviously the line has nothing to do with ethics but simply what can get you punished for. In this case though, if the allegation is correct - and it can hardly look otherwise - then that line was crossed.

kevingonewest

velo.2010 wrote: »

Fairly damning so far. I think a lot of casual fans, who haven't closely followed the story, would be disturbed by the content.

This was shown again a few nights ago on BBC and I would agree, it must have come as a shock to those still finding Wiggins, the Skoda selling role model/ hero nonsense palatable. Bravo BBC. Fotheringham completely bottled it though, he just would not even repeat what he knows and we know from Wiggins own words, clearly revealing the backstory to cheating his way to the 2012 TdF podium. On the other hand David Millar showed again that he is prepared to call it, perhaps fairly fearless for his media career, I assume it is still a lovies kiss-in across channels and Sky are not bit players.