Tuesday 10 June 2014 12:19, UK
Team Sky boss Sir David Brailsford insists he has not yet ruled Sir Bradley Wiggins out of his team for the Tour de France.
Last Friday Wiggins claimed that he would not be in the team, which will be led by last year’s winner Chris Froome.
And Wiggins hinted that he may have to move teams if he wants to ride in the Tour – which he won in 2012 – again.
But Brailsford says he will only pick his team after the Tour of Suisse.
Despite the impression that might have been created, the team for the Tour is not yet finalised. I will be the one making the decision on who is in the team.
“At Team Sky we have a set way of doing things," he told Sky Sports News. "You analyse the demands of the event and you figure out how you think you can win this event.
"So you picture who do you think has the right attitude - you're spending three and a half weeks, four weeks together in a bus, so you need a tight-knit group. You need trust, you need camaraderie. You need all of that in a team to go and compete in this race.
"We'll be looking at all of that and piecing it all together. Ultimately there is a selection panel which sits after the Tour de Suisse - which I chair - and that selection panel will absolutely pick the team."
Brailsford said that the panel will take on the frosty relationship between Froome and Wiggins, but he insists it is not just about them.
"The thing about a team like this, it's an interesting sport in that one person wins, and everybody else has to sacrifice themselves to get that person to win.
"It's not just about Chris and Brad, it's about the whole group dynamic, the dynamic of the team. You look at relationships, you look at how their commitment is, you look at how willing they are to sacrifice and suffer and give themselves - for someone else's benefit, and for the team's benefit.
"That all comes into consideration so it's not just about two people and if there is any friction (between them).
"It's about how they might affect the whole group, how that might effect the whole staffing team. You want a unified team, which has absolutely the same goal if you want to be successful in this race."
