Inside Team Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

But I couldn’t wait to get back into education, loved every single minute of it, and went on to do an MBA because as well as the science of sport, I wanted to learn about the business
side as well.’
    We talk about the principles that underpinned the setting up of Team Sky. ‘We had to be at the cutting edge of technology, and be up with the latest thinking in sports science, and ours
was going to be a clean team. Our recruitment policy was simple: we would not hire any rider or staff who had tested positive or had any clear association with doping.
    ‘It seemed to me the recruitment of doctors was key. We agreed not to take any doctor from cycling, and would hire doctors from outside cycling and work from there.’
    I tell him that when it was revealed the team had employed Dr Geert Leinders from Rabobank, who was later shown to have been involved in doping, the question in my mind was, ‘How could
Brailsford have done that?’
    ‘That’s been a very humbling experience for me.’
    Brailsford tells me the story of the June evening in 2004 when he and his pregnant partner Lisa were on a short break in Biarritz. He called David Millar who lived in Biarritz
and was part of the Team GB track team. Unusually for him, Brailsford had allowed his professional relationship with Millar to also become personal. He and Millar were friends and that evening they
decided to go to Millar’s favourite restaurant, the Blue Cargo.
    Intelligent and charming, Millar had just told an interesting anecdote about a long night partying with Lance Armstrong and two Aussies Matt White and Stuart O’Grady, when two men
approached the table. ‘David Millar?’ The rider nodded, they flashed their police badges and asked him and Brailsford to come with them.
    Outside, a third police officer waited. Millar was taken in the police car with two of the policemen, the third travelled with Brailsford and his partner in Millar’s car. Heavily pregnant,
Lisa didn’t understand what was happening and was crying. Told to follow the car in front, Brailsford presumed they were going to Millar’s apartment and knowing his way, he let the
police car disappear. This infuriated the officer in the back seat of Brailsford’s car who thought he had deliberately allowed the car in front to get away. The officer began punching the
back of Lisa’s seat which in turn infuriated Brailsford. He stopped the car. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
    Not getting much by way of an apology, Brailsford drove on and Lisa was still deeply upset. After a stop at the Biarritz police station, they went to Millar’s apartment, put Millar in one
corner, Brailsford in the other, ransacked the place and found two used EPO syringes.
    Brailsford was allowed take Lisa to a hotel before he reported back to the station for questioning. They grilled him for five hours, insisted he had to have known what Millar was doing and a
female officer said, ‘Your wife is pregnant and she’s going to lose the baby because you’re a fucking liar.’ Brailsford said he didn’t know what was going on.
    A male officer showed him a little syringe, asked him what it was and when Brailsford said a syringe, it seemed only to make things worse.
    ‘Of course it’s a syringe, what kind of syringe is it?’
    ‘It’s a small syringe.’
    Exasperated, the officers pointed to a word on the side of the syringe, Eprex.
    ‘What’s Eprex?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘You must.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    In the end they told him it was EPO and he had to have known what it was. Brailsford said the truth was that he didn’t and what did they want from him. The truth, they said.
‘That’s what I’m giving you,’ he replied. They convinced him they didn’t accept a word he was saying.
    Then, half an hour after the questions stopped, one of the officers returned to the interrogation room and politely told Brailsford they believed him. He couldn’t believe what they’d
put him through. ‘You