Thomas came through the T Mobile development programme, along with Cavendish, Clancy and Stannard. Heiko Salzwedel coached that. Heiko's had a varied career, being in charge of the Russian cycling programme at one time.
The one thing that Salzwedel has always strived for is not to become the East German cliché. His focus is on the athletes, the coaching staff is merely supporting structures.
"I introduced a completely new approach – it was not the East German way, but it was my way," he says of his arrival in Australia now over two decades ago. "I was not typical for East Germany either. On the other hand, I was just thinking logically. East Germany was a very small country; we had to look after our talents. Australia was a very small country with 17 million people then, so we had to nurse the talent. Cycling was virtually non-existent. There was a very good track program but on the road, there was virtually nothing there. The British approach was practically identical, that's why when I went back to Great Britain, and it was a philosophy that I could identify with."
While his past successes prove that his is a formula which works, he still finds himself having to convince some of his Russian colleagues that he is acting in the best interests of the program.
The old systems, while successful, were also stigmatised by the doping methods that were employed during the Russian and East German systems while at the top. But they weren't the whole story.
"When you look back at that successful Russian and East German era, absolutely, there were issues but they didn't make a 10 per cent difference, they made a two or three per cent difference," says Popov. "Some of the bad stuff stayed and that's some of the battle, to get rid of the culture of taking things to make you go faster – it's not things that make you go faster it's the culture that makes you go faster."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/rusvelo-re-building-the-salzwedel-way/Wiggins cites Salzwedel as the reason he came back for Rio. There's a thread in cycling success which connects Australia, Denmark, the UK and Russia with the former East Germany. It's a sense of focus on results, which is commendable in many ways. Britain first reaped the results in rowing, some might recall the surprise at Sir Steve Redgrave's asthma.
I think many are offended that there are athletes with talent and flair, being deprived of their just desserts by dedicated sloggers, backed by morally-dubious science. Within that conflict there are a series of ideas which we used see to articulated in children's comics, witness 'Wilson of the Wizard'. The Brit was the 'plucky amateur' facing well-drilled, state-backed, machine-athletes. But around 1990, we all became East Germany.
Cycling had its last 'Wilson of the Wizard' fling with Graeme Obree, Boardman was seen as calculating. Cavendish is the great outlier, as sprinting requires a talent that can't be developed in the lab.
