S13 Ep96: KM0: Never Go Back? Why Questions From The Past Continue To Haunt Brailsford

The Cycling Podcast

News, Sports, Sports News

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

This episode of KM0 tackles Dave Brailsford's return to Ineos Grenadiers and the Tour de France, the scene of his greatest sporting triumphs.

Between 2012 and 2019, Team Sky and then Ineos Grenadiers won seven out of eight editions of the Tour. However, there had been controversies along the way – therapeutic use exemptions to permit their key riders to take otherwise prohibited medication, therefore pushing right up to the line in terms of what is allowed by the rules. The jiffy bag incident. Letting riders and staff members go in the wake of the 2012 reasoned decision by the United States Anti-Doping Agency into Lance Armstrong's doping, and their team doctor through the glory years, Richard Freeman, getting struck off by the general medical council for his conduct while working in cycling.

After a spell at Ineos Sport, overseeing Jim Ratcliffe's sporting empire, and an unsuccessful period with Manchester United football club, Brailsford returned to the cycling team on the eve of the Tour de France with all the enthusiasm of a kid in a sweet shop, according to team CEO John Allert.

But since the start in Lille, allegations from Team Sky's past have stalked Brailsford. It concerns their head carer, a Slovenian called David Rozman, who had been involved in the Operation Aderlass doping investigation relating to alleged text messages between him and Dr Mark Schmidt, subsequently jailed for doping offences, shortly before the 2012 Tour.

Brailsford and the team initially said they would not be commenting on the allegations but today (Thursday) they confirmed Rozman had been contacted by the International Testing Agency regarding the alleged texts, initially informally.

Lionel Birnie delves into the background, examines Brailsford's comeback and talks to David Walsh about why he has more questions to answer about what went on in 2012.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Kilometre Zero by the Cycle Podcast. Just before the Tour de France, Inios Grenadiers held a pre-race briefing for invited members of the media.
0:34.0	There'd been a lot of speculation that Dave Browseford would be returning to the team,
0:38.3	having been moved away from his role at Manchester United Football Club by Jim Ratcliffe,
0:42.3	the billionaire owner of the INEOS Sport organisation.
0:45.3	John Allert, the cycling team's CEO, said, referring to Browseford,
0:49.3	he's like a kid in a sweet shop, talking about climbs and getting back to the mountains.
0:53.3	That's the battlefield that he knows and loves. We've welcomed getting back to the mountains. That's the battlefield
0:54.6	that he knows and loves. We've welcomed him back into the team with open arms. He's a not-so-secret
0:59.5	weapon for us to use and we plan on using him to the fullest extent we can. It's great to have
1:04.2	him back.
1:05.2	Yes, he's clear. Mark Cavendix gets full out of four weeks in the last four years in Paris this is the end of a perfect
1:14.2	tour de france for great britain the yellow jersey for bradley riggins the first ever to win for
1:20.7	great britain behind wiggins is chris fruven finishes. It just is all too perfect.
1:28.1	Browseford was the mastermind behind Team Sky, of course, and the Tour de France was the
1:32.2	scene of his greatest sporting triumphs. In 2012, Bradley Wiggins became the first British
1:37.0	rider to win the tour, two and a half years after the team launched amid a blaze of publicity.
1:42.6	Chris Frum then won four titles, and Geraint Thomas added one more,
1:46.4	before the Sky Media Company stepped aside as team sponsors in early 2019
1:50.8	to be replaced by Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe's Global Energy and Chemical Company.
1:56.7	Sky Blue was replaced by Fire Red, and later that summer, Egan Bernal, the young Colombian rider, won the Tour de France just ahead of his Ineos teammate Geraint Thomas.
2:05.9	That completed a run of seven Tour de France wins in eight summers for Browseford's team.
2:10.8	And this is going to be music to his ears and all fans of cycling and not only that.
	...

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