What Can Sir Dave Brailsford Do For Manchester United?
Cycling's most famous executive is off to tackle the Premier League's most messed-up big team.
But first, some housekeeping.
Bad news: Our guy12, Mexican wunderkind Isaac del Toro, did not successfully defend the (exaggerated to the point of being offensive Australian accent) ochre jersey at the Tour Down Under.
Del Toro lost the lead to eventual race winner Stephen Williams on Willunga Hill, and entered the final stage as one of four riders within five seconds of the lead. With 10 seconds of bonus time available to the stage winner, he still had a good chance of winning the GC of his first World Tour stage race. And del Toro did everything he could. He drilled it up the final climb of the day, distancing second-placed Oscar Onley and (for a time) Williams, but once the top handful of riders crested that climb, del Toro found himself unable to get off the front of the group to set up his final sprint. Williams reattached himself and ultimately bolted away to take the stage and the GC.
I think del Toro painted himself into a corner tactically once the initial attack didn’t stick, but that’s OK. I don’t mind a little naïveté from a young climber when it animates the race, and third place in your debut race at age 20 is still nothing to sneeze at. Looking forward to seeing what he can do in the big mountains against the grown-ups this summer.
But now, on to the main event. The guy in the photo up top is Sir Dave Brailsford, who probably did more than anyone else on the planet to influence the course of cycling history in the 2010s. On Saturday, The Telegraph reported that Brailsford had stepped down as team principal of the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team—a position he’d held through two name changes since the organization’s founding in 2009—and is taking up a role with Manchester United.
At his peak, Brailsford was hailed as a visionary and a miracle worker, with a track record3 that supported such flattering descriptions. Cycling is constantly gobbling up athletes from other sports—soccer being one of the foremost among them. So what can this great man of cycling do, now that he’s moving in the other direction?