Sir Dave Brailsford declares 'new chapter' for Team Sky and aims to be best cycling team in world by 2020

Sir Dave Brailsford says Team Sky are entering a “new chapter” and has set a fresh goal of becoming “the best and most consistent cycling team in the world” by 2020.

Five years on from the British squad’s launch in January 2010, Brailsford has seen them twice achieve their founding ambition of winning the Tour de France with a home rider and is now putting a new set of targets in place for the next five years.

The team principal wants to make strides both on and off the bike, with even better results and technological developments that will “disrupt” cycling’s “status quo” top of his priorities.

The “fresh start” also coincides with the impending departure of long-term leader and figurehead Sir Bradley Wiggins, who will leave the team on April 30, and the passing of that mantle to Chris Froome.

'Continue to improve'

Speaking at Team Sky’s winter training camp in Mallorca, Brailsford said: “It feels like the end of one chapter and on to another. The first chapter was very much about Bradley winning the Tour and winning the Olympics. It was off the scale in terms of an experience. But this does feel like a fresh start.

“The whole point in being in sport is that you continue to improve. For us it goes without saying that we would like the second five years to be better than the first five years.

"By the time we get to 2020 we would like to be considered undisputably the best and most consistent cycling team in the world.”

Team Sky achieved 165 wins in their first five years of existence but much of their success was reserved for stage races.

I think there are opportunities from a Grand Tour point of view, but particularly in the Monuments and the classics.

A key area Brailsford wants to improve on in order to become the best and most consistent team is the one-day classics, where they have traditionally struggled to secure victories.

Monument focus

They have won smaller classics such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but they are still awaiting their first triumph in one of the five Monuments – Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia – which are the most prestigious one-day races.

Brailsford said: “From a results point of view we are going to have to match our results [from the first five years] and I think there are opportunities from a Grand Tour point of view, but particularly in the Monuments and the classics. That’s an area where we want to get one of those on our palmares and is a keen area of interest.

“There is an opportunity in the next five years from a performance point of view to become maybe a more complete team. We are very focused on stage racing at the moment, so there is a good opportunity there.”

There’s so much going on in terms of technology, human performance, and there’s so much ground being covered in so many different industries that the quest to stay ahead in that area is something that we really thrive on.

Outside of racing, Team Sky revolutionised cycling in their first five years by using innovations and technologies ranging from personalised pillows for riders to cutting-edge training techniques, all of which many rival teams have since emulated.

Technology gains

They also had a significant influence on the lifestyles of the British public by helping to inspire more than one million people to start riding bikes regularly, playing a key role in cycling’s remarkable recent boom.

Brailsford is keen to keep forging ahead in both areas and believes setting up a “human performance centre” could contribute to the wellbeing of Team Sky, teams from other sports and the wider public.

He added: “The question really is, how do you do it? From our point of view, staying at the cutting edge of innovation – there’s so much going on in terms of technology, human performance, and there is so much ground being covered in so many different industries that the quest to stay ahead in that area is something that we really thrive on.

“Knowledge capture and understanding about human performance is a passion for us. Can we capture that and look towards a human performance centre and can we use that not only to inform our team, but also inform different sports or different aspects of people’s lives.”