Dave Brailsford, the Team Ineos chief, has dismissed suggestions he may become group performance director across Jim Ratcliffe’s growing sports portfolio after the multimillionaire’s purchase of the French football club Nice.
“My responsibility is running the cycling team,” Brailsford said, before acknowledging that “being part of an expanding sporting family is pretty exciting”.
Team Ineos have a facility in Monaco and their highest-profile riders Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas are based on the Cote d’Azur. Many of the team’s key riders train in the hills behind Nice. Brailsford said: “Nice are based just around the coast from where we are in Monaco. They have a fantastic training facility just outside the airport in Nice. I think Jim only bought it yesterday.
“It [Ineos] is such an invigorating and dynamic organisation and culture. He is a charismatic guy. He really does love sport. I like building things and it feels like something is being built here. This is an exciting project.”
Although he is managing a team in the Tour de France for the 10th time, Brailsford refused to rule out leaving the sport behind. “You are constantly looking for things to challenge you and push you on. I don’t want to leave cycling, I love it too much, but equally I think this could be quite a challenge and it feels really invigorating.
“The culture and the dynamic around it chimes with me as a person. I don’t think anyone has said: ‘Here is the endgame’ but certainly the opportunities are there and clear to see and it is up to us to get our heads together and say: ‘How can we maximise the performance of each team, given the collaboration potential among all of us?’ That feels like an incredibly exciting opportunity.”