British Cycling Performance Director Dave Brailsford talked about a number of cycling topics on BBC Radio Five this morning, below are quotes from just some of the issues that were discussed. You can listen to the .
Brailsford on the build up to next year’s Olympics:
“It’s quite a juggling act between trying to score points and not running around the world constantly where you can de-train with the all the travelling etc. We have to be quite strategic about it, the guys over there [in Kazakhstan] at the moment are competing to try and collect some more points, the rest are back here going into training blocks, between now and Christmas is a real key period.
“We don’t do medal targets. If you like to win a gold medal is a dream, we all want it, we all try our best, but if you set that as a target the you're up against it as the riders will agitate straight away and it’s not something that’s in their control. We will then work on targets and these will be things like how much power do you need to develop? What aero dynamic drag do we need? All these variables, we work to that, we set these clear performance targets, the best we can possible be with the athletes we have.”
Brailsford on holding a Track World Cup event at the London Velodrome:
"It's fantastic the Games are in London and we need a test event but I am a bit miffed to be honest. We are having a fully blown World Cup as a test event when a lot of the other venues are using national championships.
"We are basically inviting in opposition from the rest of the world to come and have a look at our facilities and learn the nuances of the track. Could we do it a different way? Probably. But now it is a question of managing it properly and getting the most out of it."
Brailsford on Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky:
“I think in modern cycling to be one of the best teams you’ve got to be able to compete across the season in all different events and in that sense you need to build up the roster and rider capabilities to ensure that you can do that. That’s why we wanted Mark on the team.
“When it comes to the Tour de France in modern cycling, on the one hand you’ve got Bradley who will be going for GC, potentially Chris Froome and then we’ve got Mark who’ll try to win stages. The key thing when you actually look at this year’s Tour de France route we think that by getting the right riders, the right mix, the right riders in the middle, and the style of riding we intend to ride this could be complimentary.
“But what it does mean that the guys in the middle of the team, the workers of the team, have to be extremely high standard bike riders in their own right, creating a ‘super team’ in the middle of the team and that’s what we are trying to do.”
