Brailsford targets a GB win in the Tour

Kléber wrote:

Eh? A Tour winner is usually obliterating the opposition in their early 20s. Think Ullrich, who was a force at the age of 19. How Indurain rode too fast a tempo for Delgado in 1989. Armstrong as the precocious world champ. Maybe Riis was an exception but there's a reason behind that that Brailsford wouldn't like.

So I can't see any British rider doing this quite yet. Maybe just PR to get attention and potential backers for GB team. Still, let's hope he's right.

The Guardian wrote:

Dave Brailsford, the cycling performance director, said he is close to raising the £24m over four years necessary to realise his dream of putting a British team in the Tour de France from 2010. He has been in close contact with a number of potential commercial backers and expects to begin negotiating with riders over contracts later this year. "Now is the moment because a lot of the British guys are out of contract next year," he said. His most important target is the sprinter Mark Cavendish, who was confirmed yesterday in the Columbia team's line-up for the Tour de France. The double Giro d'Italia stage winner is signed up to Columbia until the end of 2009 but is already being courted by other teams.

While potential sponsors' names remain under wraps, Brailsford revealed that his team will be overseen by a trust which will ensure its "moral capital" and that his aim is a squad which will retain its name, in the style of Ferrari in formula one, rather than giving a backer sole title sponsorship. He is utterly confident about the project: "This thing looks as if it is going to happen."