Brian Smith: Brailsford could plug holes but wasn’t good at developing talent

Former MTN-Qhubeka team manager reflects on Dave Brailsford's strengths and weaknesses, and reminisces on Ineos ignoring his calls to sign Primož Roglič

10:24, Friday 2nd February 2024

Daniel Benson

Editor in Chief

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Dave Brailsford sits alongside Geraint Thomas at the 2019 Tour de France, the last Tour that Ineos have been able to win

According to Brian Smith, the Ineos Grenadiers team has lost its fun factor and possibly doesn’t appeal to young British riders in the way that it once did. The former team manager and now Eurosport commentator also stated that while he had respect for former Ineos team principal Dave Brailsford, there were also question marks over the team’s recruitment and development of talent.

In late January, Brailsford stepped away from his role on the cycling team to take up responsibility for Ineos’ broader sporting activities, including the running of Manchester United. The news brought the curtain down on Brailsford's almost 15-year reign on the WorldTour cycling team and an era that included seven Tour de France titles and the recognition of building Team Sky, and later Ineos Grenadiers, into one of the most successful teams cycling has ever seen.

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Despite the success, the British squad has struggled to meet its previous levels of consistency with no Tour de France win since 2019 and no realistic hope of winning the race in the next year or two. Smith recognised Brailsford's record as a team boss, and what he was able to achieve but he also highlighted the struggles that the squad faced when it came to signing new talent that could keep the success going.

“The thing about Dave was that he could see the leaks and then plug them. He was very good at looking at all the small details and he came up with the marginal gains, and that’s all it was. Looking at all the small details where they could improve but now everyone is doing it. What Dave wasn’t the best at, and he’d probably admit it, he wasn’t good at developing talent. When you’ve got the money that they have, then you just buy the talent. Now you’ve got, over the last few years, a sway of Brits not wanting to ride for Team Sky or Ineos. They want to go elsewhere,” Smith told GCN.

One of Brailsford’s key strengths, according to Smith, was surrounding himself with the right people. During Team Sky’s heyday the likes of Fran Millar, Tim Kerrison and the late Nicolas Portal, were instrumental in driving the team forward but they were not suitably replaced during a long period of decline and transition as other teams caught up with the squad’s methods and then surpassed them.

“Dave wasn’t a guru or anything like that. What he was good at was surrounding himself with the best people who could plug those holes. He brought in people who were at the top of their game and that was a golden period for them. But they all come to an end, you just have to look at Manchester United to see that,” Smith said.

“I’m not sure what other holes he could plug in the team. It’s quite sad, I can remember kids like Luke Rowe and all they wanted to do was ride for Team Sky and now you’ve got Ben Tulett and other British riders wanting to go to other teams like Jumbo [Visma-Lease a Bike]. That’s my take and I have a lot of respect for Dave, and I hope he does well but let's see what he can do.”

Smith also pointed to the atmosphere in and around the team, and how that had shifted in the last few years.

“His movement into football and having an arm’s length away from cycling has really affected Ineos but I do think that over the last two or three years when they started losing the Tour and not having that dominance, I think that the enjoyment factor has probably not been there,” he said.

“I still keep in touch with a few guys and they’re working hard but when you’re not winning, that’s when the pressure comes because it’s a high-budget team. That can have an effect on the atmosphere. Ineos still have talent, but the fun factor, I think that bubble burst a bit.”

Ineos Grenadiers miss out on Roglič, Pogačar and more

Smith, who had management stints at Endura and MTN-Qhubeka, returned to the topic of recruitment and highlighted the fact that part of Ineos’ decline stemmed from the fact that young talent wasn’t brought on early enough, and that when diamonds in the rough were discovered and put in front of Brailsford, they weren’t snapped up.

“I flagged this long ago and before he joined any team, and I was in contact with Primož Roglič and trying to get him to MTN. He jumped on the phone with me and said that Jumbo had made him an offer and that he was going to go and meet them in Amsterdam. I couldn’t offer him anything but I told Dave to have a look out for him. Then the next year I got a message from Dave saying ‘your man is leading the stage’ when Roglič was winning the time trial at the Giro. He won it. Dave was always interested but he didn’t want to poach riders and Dave did always try and do his best by the team.

“I think that he was good at that leadership role but they’ve lost their way a bit now. I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Steve Cummings there and it’s been a quick turnaround for him. He’s the sort of person who can stand up and have that leadership role in the team.”

Another rider that the team may have missed out on was Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who like Roglič, has become one of the best Grand Tour riders of the last five years. Both riders were on Ineos’ radar last year too but the prime time to sign them was arguably before their breakout years.

“I don’t know how much he tried to get some of these riders on the team. He wasn’t very good at spotting them. Pogačar, I knew about when he was riding as an amateur at the Tour of Croatia. Vingegaard; there’s a lot of riders coming up — Roglič — [Brailsford] had the opportunity but didn’t reach out. It seems to be that recruitment and whether they wanted to come to the team or not, that’s the problem.”

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