Author Topic: Sir Dave Brailsford  (Read 7405 times)

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Sir Dave Brailsford
« on: 09 August, 2012, 06:35:17 am »
I'll be most disappointed if he's not given a knighthood now.

Alastair Campbell's tweet
Quote
Dave Brailsford interview with @GaryLineker showing once again why he is best in the business

(Assuming he was referring to DB not GL !)
Aero but not dynamic

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #1 on: 09 August, 2012, 08:53:07 am »
I saw that (the interview, not AC's tweet) and it was awesome.  Whatever Dave Brailsford's got - more sports need it.

Unfortunately, I would imagine that a large part of the success of BC is down to the sheer quantities of filthy lucre that have been made available to it in this Olympic year.  I wonder if that level of funding is going to be sustainable ahead of Rio?
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #2 on: 09 August, 2012, 08:57:24 am »
I should imagine that most of that filthy lucre has been ploughed back into the UK ecconomy though through things like wind tunnel sessions, bike manufacture etc. As the track team is Manchester based and probably doesn't do as much altitude training / warm weather training due to the controlled atmosphere at the Manchester Velodrome.

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #3 on: 09 August, 2012, 09:29:01 am »
It's already been trailed that the government support for athletes in all sports leading up to Rio will be much reduced.

David Brailsford has, though, already said that he doesn't see this as a real issue; there's enough room to account for this in cycling (and he has, of course, commercial funding as well).

There is a real possibility though that by Rio he will be pulling back from BC and just concentrating on Sky professional cycling.

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #4 on: 09 August, 2012, 09:46:41 am »
I thought he (DB) made a few interesting comments in the interview, it also sounded as though there has been a few tentative feelers sent out in his general direction re other sports, football was mentioned, only problem there would be the players egos, way too big to be told what to do, it's a shame that the government is so short sighted, it's quite obvious from the last olympics to this one that money = results, a couple of years ago no one could understand why the american equestrian team were doing so well, despite various thoughts on the matter no one considered the $3 million injected in to the team had any thing to do with it, odd that ;)

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #5 on: 09 August, 2012, 11:26:40 am »
There is very little that £ cannot buy providing you have enough of it & spend it wisely.
It's important to know the value of ambition/success as well as the price of it.

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #6 on: 09 August, 2012, 11:33:05 am »
Does anybody know his history as a semi-pro racer? Probably one of the best moves he made was to ditch trying to make it as a rider, and go off to study sports science/psychology. And an MBA.
'Something....something.... Something about racing bicycles, but really a profound metaphor about life itself.'  Tim Krabbé. Possibly

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #7 on: 09 August, 2012, 01:40:05 pm »
And an MBA.

People take the piss out of MBA courses, but knowing how to project manage something like BC's part of Team GB can't be overstated.  Dave B clearly understands how to turn a stack of cash into the result that the providers of all that lovely lolly so dearly want.
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #8 on: 09 August, 2012, 03:53:33 pm »
Lets see; knighthoods are normally awarded for 'services to community or business'.

What has DB done?

Taken a niche sport and made it nationally famous.
Taken a niche, none-medal-winning GB sport and created a world-beating team.
Set up and led a team that took 1st and 2nd in the TDF

Yeah, I agree with RoJ. Give the bugger a knighthood, he has changed the landscape of sport in this country.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #9 on: 09 August, 2012, 04:00:57 pm »
I think that one of the unsung heros of the BC team should be up for a gong.  Dr Steve Peters is the guy that has managed to get a number of the high profile members over their fears and you could see a lot of "headology" going on in the track races (poker faces, not acknowledging their opponents or the audience until after the race, dark mirror finish visors on the track helmets etc etc), which undoubtedly has helped.  Chris Boardman should be told to keep his trap shut though.  I heard an interview with him the other day, on Radio 5 Live, when he said the wheels are nothing special, in fact they are the same ones they have used since (IIRC) 2004!!!!
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #10 on: 09 August, 2012, 04:13:00 pm »
But they are really round though :)
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #11 on: 09 August, 2012, 04:27:50 pm »
But they are really round though :)

Can you point to where I can catch this interview please ?
It sounds like a lot of fun  ;D


Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #12 on: 09 August, 2012, 09:55:42 pm »
Here's a brief one :
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/dDJMrBP7QNY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/dDJMrBP7QNY&rel=1</a>

There have been several, though I can't find them on the web yet. My favourite was the one in which he said he'd told the French the wheels were really round; not just nearly round but really round.  ;D

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #13 on: 09 August, 2012, 10:54:32 pm »
Apparently they put the carbon bars into a cupboard after the last olympics and trained and raced on alu ones to make the opposition think they were doing better than they actually were.

Just as well they remembered which cupboard they put the bars away in.
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #14 on: 09 August, 2012, 11:03:18 pm »
Be interesting to see how the UCI tries to outlaw mind-f***ing the opposition. ;D
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #15 on: 10 August, 2012, 07:36:00 am »
Can you point to where I can catch this interview please ?

Not this one, but Profile on BBC radio 4 on the 11th (Saturday) is about him, that will be nice and indepth, and likely to be on the iplayer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjz5

Ooooh and there is a Ben Goldacre program on Placebo effect, god I love the beeb.

fuzzy

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #16 on: 11 August, 2012, 08:09:31 am »
There is very little that £ cannot buy providing you have enough of it & spend it wisely.
It's important to know the value of ambition/success as well as the price of it.

My bold.

You can throw as much money at something as you like. It is using some of that money to employ folk that know how to use it that is the important thing.

Dave Brailsford has a knack. He can look at a situation, identify what works and what doesn't and then build a team that knows how to make the failing aspects work.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #17 on: 16 August, 2012, 07:49:24 am »
I am unsurprised to note that Mr Froome is to be TL for Sky's Vuelta squad and Contador (who he? Ed) rates his chances for a win.

It occurs to me that if Sky pull two GT wins out of the bag this year that not only should Mr. Froome get a gong from HM The Queen for Services to Cycling,  but we should also approach His Holiness The Pope to see about instant canonisation for DB.   

Hmmm Saint Dave the Cyclist, yeah has a ring to it and we can leave that tedious old pedestrian St. Christopher to others cos we'll have our own Patron Saint. Yeah. :)
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

LEE

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #18 on: 16 August, 2012, 08:50:39 am »
There is very little that £ cannot buy providing you have enough of it & spend it wisely.
It's important to know the value of ambition/success as well as the price of it.

My bold.

You can throw as much money at something as you like. It is using some of that money to employ folk that know how to use it that is the important thing.

Dave Brailsford has a knack. He can look at a situation, identify what works and what doesn't and then build a team that knows how to make the failing aspects work.

Exactly this.

Dave Brailsford is about excellence.  You don't need pots of money for that, it just helps you buy more excellent things.

He would have improved British Cycling with or without pots of cash because he has an attention to detail and improves the small, but meaningful, details (as part of his "aggregation of marginal gains").  Obviously those gains, on a tiny budget, would have been less, as would the medal tally, but he would have made gains, it's in his nature.

The cash allowed him to make more marginal gains (bike development and so on).

I have heard several times that Head Coaches from other sporting disciplines are now being granted audiences with his Holiness DB.  That's as it should be.  He comes from a cycling background (and refuses to leave it to coach elsewhere) but his techniques and overall approach seem eminently transferable and generic.

I see "Team America - F*** Yeah!" have recruited Jamie Staff in order to try and reproduce the Brailsford effect.

But yes, as much as I don't agree with all this King Arthur stuff, DB deserves a tap of the royal sword as much as anyone else who's received it, he's made us the world's leading achievers in something.  That's tough to do and it raises the spirits of the nation a notch or two.

We need more excellent people in charge.

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #19 on: 16 August, 2012, 10:44:29 am »
I see "Team America - F*** Yeah!" have recruited Jamie Staff in order to try and reproduce the Brailsford effect.


I think he's been coaching them for a while - he certainly has (some of) the US Olympic track team.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #20 on: 16 August, 2012, 12:07:09 pm »
I thought we already had a patron saint: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Ghisallo
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #21 on: 16 August, 2012, 12:14:58 pm »
I see "Team America - F*** Yeah!" have recruited Jamie Staff in order to try and reproduce the Brailsford effect.


I think he's been coaching them for a while - he certainly has (some of) the US Olympic track team.

And he has been doing a pretty good job. He is also the national coach for Trinidad and Tobago and they did rather well this year on the track.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

fuzzy

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #22 on: 16 August, 2012, 01:14:50 pm »
I see "Team America - F*** Yeah!" have recruited Jamie Staff in order to try and reproduce the Brailsford effect.


I think he's been coaching them for a while - he certainly has (some of) the US Olympic track team.

And he has been doing a pretty good job. He is also the national coach for Trinidad and Tobago and they did rather well this year on the track.

I took a bit of a respectful shine to Njisane Phillip during the recent festivities. he was a breath of fresh air :thumbsup:

Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
« Reply #23 on: 21 August, 2012, 09:37:21 am »
Brailsford already has a CBE so surely a knighthood is the next step, eh?