Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => Freewheeling => Racing => Topic started by: Rig of Jarkness on 09 August, 2012, 06:35:17 am

Title: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Rig of Jarkness 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 !)
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Charlotte 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?
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: matthew 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: giropaul 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: ferret 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 ;)
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: jogler 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Ewan Houzami 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Charlotte 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: mrcharly-YHT 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: tiermat 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!!!!
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: mcshroom on 09 August, 2012, 04:13:00 pm
But they are really round though :)
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Andrew Br 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

Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Kevina9 on 09 August, 2012, 09:55:42 pm
Here's a brief one :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDJMrBP7QNY

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
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Jaded 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: spesh on 09 August, 2012, 11:03:18 pm
Be interesting to see how the UCI tries to outlaw mind-f***ing the opposition. ;D
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: peterc 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 (http://Webby page for show, but not iplayer link yet)

Ooooh and there is a Ben Goldacre program on Placebo effect, god I love the beeb.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: fuzzy 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: TheLurker 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. :)
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: LEE 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: rafletcher 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: mcshroom on 16 August, 2012, 12:07:09 pm
I thought we already had a patron saint: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Ghisallo
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: David Martin 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.
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: fuzzy 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:
Title: Re: Sir Dave Brailsford
Post by: Kathryn on 21 August, 2012, 09:37:21 am
Brailsford already has a CBE so surely a knighthood is the next step, eh?