New Sky DS?

iainf72

Quite funny considering what Brailsford said yesterday

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contado ... ng-options

Kléber

Hmm, ex-Once and Festina rider and in recent years, Manolo Saiz's number two in the team car at Liberty Seguros and once the team blew up after Operation Puerto he went on to help out those poor victims of injustice at Caisse d'Epargne. The bloke's up to his neck in dodginess although this is partly because he's spent all his career in Spain. Still, his CV is impressively suspicious even for someone who's spent his time in Spain.

You can almost excuse what he did as a rider but hiring someone so closely linked to Puerto has to be out of the question for Sky? After all Brailsford rejected David Millar for Sky given his past.

Can you imagine the job interview?

DB: So tell me about a time when you took a firm stance against doping?
NS: err, I, um, err, well, err

He also sounds like a weasel, when asked about EPO use at Festina, he was the only rider on the team to deny EPO use, claiming he thought he was getting "vitamins". Team mates Pascal Hervé and Richard Virenque initially denied but finally gave up the porky pies but I've not read anything from Stephens saying otherwise.

Sky need to steer well clear of people like this.

frenchfighter

At the start, I didn't want anyone who'd been caught up in a doping scandal, but as soon as you look for someone aged over 35 with lots of experience, you won't find anyone without a few worries. Maybe I'm going to have to reappraise my judgements*
DB

From:
http://theinnerring.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... tance.html

Kléber

"a few worries" is a very light way of putting it. What next, "mild reservations" over Michele Ferrari? For a team that's supposed to be steering clear of doping and the "drug culture", hiring Yates was bad enough but Stevo's a leap in the wrong direction.

jibberjim

I can only assume Brailsford actually has zero scruples whatsoever and after failing to achieve anything with clean riders is now approaching DS's with plenty of experience of doping to instigate a doping program.

Absolutely digusting, but it doesn't surprise me, British Cycling don't seem to actually care an awful lot about doping at all. It's a shame Brailsford wants to tar all his olympic success with the drugs brush, but if he's actually happy to employ dopers, I can only conclude the entire Olympic team owed there success to the same dope.

Pross

Where do you draw the line though? It's difficult enough finding a rider or ex-rider with no proven drugs history. Once you start going down the lines of avoiding anyone with a possible wiff of association you really are cutting down your options. How many experienced pro tour DSs are there aeround without any hint of smoke in their past?

Kléber

jibberjim wrote:

I can only assume Brailsford actually has zero scruples whatsoever and after failing to achieve anything with clean riders is now approaching DS's with plenty of experience of doping to instigate a doping program.

I disagree here. Stepping away, if you wanted to create a doping programme, you would not want to attract attention with dodgy people.

Instead, it's another form of desperation. He's got a collection of lightweights behind the steering wheel and needs someone with the know-how of a long stage race. Sean Yates is there but he's a primitive bloke who communicates by grunting.

But as much as he needs that experience, there are plenty of others available. Sky's made a big deal of being clean and they can't afford to be near dodgy people. After all jibberjim has already made some wild accusations and if this continues, the fans will disappear. They could do so much better than Stephens.

Pross wrote:

Where do you draw the line though?

This side of Neil Stephens.

Pross

So who would you be looking at in his position? I'd like to see Backstedt doing it but he has his own team. He has an association with anti-doping teams, experience, good English, speaks a lot of sense but then he's got a young family and may have had enough of being away for large parts of the year.

mididoctors

Kléber wrote:

Pross wrote:

Where do you draw the line though?

This side of Neil Stephens.

my mate stevo... !

jibberjim

Kléber wrote:

jibberjim wrote:

I can only assume Brailsford actually has zero scruples whatsoever and after failing to achieve anything with clean riders is now approaching DS's with plenty of experience of doping to instigate a doping program.

I disagree here. Stepping away, if you wanted to create a doping programme, you would not want to attract attention with dodgy people.

But why do you want Stephens? He's either bent, so he knows how to get results with dope - how is that useful when you don't have doped riders? It's different to call the tactics when you know "Domestique Fred" just got a blood refill and will have good legs than it is if you don't.

And if he's not bent, then he's completley incompetent to be DS at Liberty segurous when his manager and his riders had a full program going on.

Kléber

jibberjim wrote:

But why do you want Stephens? He's either bent, so he knows how to get results with dope

He probably knew full well what was going on as a team manager. But he can also bring other experience, such as tactics for a stage race and more. Sitting in the car during the Vuelta last September involved a lot more than planning Valverde's next refill.

It's not that he's suddenly going to start turbo charging the riders, it's more that the team's lowering it standards so suddenly.

iainf72

Wot Kleber said.

If you just wanted a good guy to have in the car, you could probably do a lot worse than Manolo Saiz. Good at the sporting part, good at building a "team" and a masterful doper.

I wonder if Brailsford is getting pressure from the business side of things? I'm sure Sky want to be associated with success and if they had expectations from this Tour which weren't met they could be asking about what they're getting for their investment.

Yates is an odd one - His biggest success as a DS was seeing a client of Michele Ferrari see off Di Luca et al in the Giro when blood doping was probably at it's peak.

DaveyL

So, have they actually signed him up then?

andyp

I can't believe they've spoken to him. Does Brailsford ever consider what he says in public?

iainf72

andyp wrote:

I can't believe they've spoken to him. Does Brailsford ever consider what he says in public?

Perhaps he fancies a crack at running the UCI and is practising for the role?

iainf72

Richard Moore writes on the rumours. He did tweet earlier that it was "alarming"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/ju ... ng-festina?

eh

Can someone remind me why Scott Sunderland left?

Jeez, as if Sutton and Yates weren't dodgy enough, Stephens would be taking the p*ss.

Kléber

Sunderland's got a sick child, I think he didn't want the travel. There might be more but that's a convincing enough reason.

iainf72

Kléber wrote:

Sunderland's got a sick child, I think he didn't want the travel. There might be more but that's a convincing enough reason.

He's moving back to Oz as well now.

But I also tend to think it was more than 1 thing. Especially with the Nygaard situation.

shockedsoshocked

Haven't Yates, Sunderland and Sutton all been caught positive in the past? Skys selection policy doesn't seem to extend to the backroom staff.

BikingBernie

The whole team seems to have developed a soft spot for those tainted with 'suspicions' of doping. This is what Wiggins said about Armstrong a few days ago:

"I love him," Wiggins said. "I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense. Even his strongest critics have benefitted from him. I don't think this sport will ever realise what he's brought it or how big he's made it.

"Cycling was in the dark ages before he came along, in many ways. You only have to look at the support along the roads, compared to what it was 20 years ago. The majority of that is because of Lance Armstrong. Obviously he has his enemies and people among the fans who don't like him, but they've all benefitted from him and his existence on the Tour."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/ju ... -armstrong