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knew I had nothing to do with this,’ he said. ‘We weren’t sure,’ the officer replied.
    He tells this story passionately, wanting me to understand he had been with Millar at the moment of his disgrace and that he had been treated like a criminal simply because he’d been in
Millar’s company.
    Lisa wanted him to return home as soon as he could, advice reiterated by people back at British Cycling, but Brailsford stayed to support Millar who spent almost two days in prison before making
a full confession in the 47th hour of a 48-hour detention.
    When he was released from prison, Brailsford was waiting for him. They shared a bottle of wine and Millar told his friend and the boss of Team GB, for which he rode, the full extent of his
doping. Brailsford listened but didn’t judge, even though it emerged Millar had used drugs when riding for the GB team and by doing so jeopardised Brailsford’s position and the entire
programme.
    After returning to Britain, Brailsford asked Steve Peters to go down to Biarritz and do what he could to help Millar through a difficult time. According to Millar, Brailsford paid for
Peters’s flight from his own pocket.
    I listened without saying much.
    Brailsford wasn’t sure what I thought about Team Sky. Neither was I.
    ‘Do you believe we’re clean?’ he asked.
    ‘If you put a gun to my head and said, “Did Team Sky win the Tour de France clean?” I’d say, “Yes, I think they did win it clean.” Then the trigger is pulled,
I hear the click of an empty chamber and I think, “Phew, thank God I’m still around,” because there would be a fair amount of relief. You see, I’m not sure. How can anybody
be?’
    ‘I know we are doing things correctly,’ he said. ‘I know we are clean.’
    ‘If you are, why do you get so defensive when there are doping questions?’
    ‘We don’t get defensive,’ he said.
    ‘You do. Bradley’s explosion at the Tour created the impression the team wasn’t comfortable dealing with doping. Some journalists complained that the team was too controlling
and occasionally tried to discourage journalists from asking about doping.’
    ‘I’m sure we didn’t do that,’ he says.
    ‘Certain journalists say you did, that they themselves were asked not to pursue a particular line at a Wiggins press conference for fear that it would upset the leader. And that was
normally something to do with doping.’
    I felt he didn’t believe this had taken place, but it had.
    He then changed tack. ‘We have nothing to hide and if you’d like to come and live with the team, you’d be more than welcome.’
    ‘What do you mean, “live with the team”?’
    ‘You would have complete access. Stay in the team hotel, eat with us. Travel with members of the team, speak to who you want to, go into the doctor’s room, see who’s coming in
and out of the hotel. Literally, whatever you want to do.’
    I hadn’t expected anything like this and it put me in a slightly awkward position.
    ‘You tried this before with my close friend Paul Kimmage and it didn’t work.’
    ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I was hugely embarrassed by what happened. I invited Paul to come with us on the 2010 Tour de France and then I had to withdraw the offer after the first
few days. I found myself in an extremely difficult position, but a few of the staff didn’t enjoy having Paul around. They found him intense and difficult to be around. We could have handled
it better. He could have handled it better.’
    ‘What do you think is the key to it working this time round?’ I say.
    ‘Paul came to a training camp for two or three days before the Tour; it wasn’t enough. People didn’t know him, weren’t comfortable around him and I think he’d agree
himself, he’s not the easiest guy. If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to come to our training camp at Mallorca in January. Spend a week with us there. Then you’ve got to
spend a week with us in Tenerife, because it is