Dave brailsford marginal gains book

British cycling coach

Sir David John BrailsfordCBE (born 29 February )^[1] is a British sports director and former cycling coach. He is currently team principal of UCI WorldTeamIneos Grenadiers, and was performance director of British Cycling from to ^[2] He is also currently working with French football club Nice and English football club Manchester United as part of his role as Director of Sport at Ineos.^[3][4]

Early life

Brailsford was born in Shardlow, Derbyshire, and moved as a toddler with his parents and siblings to Deiniolen, near Caernarfon in Wales:

We were one of the few English families in that area of north Wales – we'd moved there from Derby when I was two – and somehow I always felt I didn't quite fit in.

So I always thought I must try harder than the others to be accepted, to be successful.^[5]

He attended Ysgol Deiniolen and Ysgol Brynrefail, and learned Welsh.^[6][7] In he gave up his job as an apprenticedraughtsman with the local highways department to travel to France, where he raced for four years as a sponsored amateur for a team based in Saint-Étienne.

He has described his years in France as a time of learning:

I'd always hated school but now I had so much time on my hands and didn't go out much in the evenings, I became an avid reader. Training manuals, books about physiology, sports psychology. I became fluent in French too.^[5]

He returned in to study for a degree in Sport and Exercise Sciences and Psychology at Chester College of Higher Education and then an MBA at Sheffield Hallam University.^[8][9][10]

Career

Early career

Brailsford spent some of his early career working as an export sales manager at Planet X Bikes.^[11] He was first employed by British Cycling as a consultant in , after Lottery funding began the previous year.^[8][12] Brailsford became programmes director before becoming performance director in following the departure of Peter Keen.^[8]

'Marginal gains' philosophy

At British Cycling, Brailsford was noted for the concept of 'marginal gains':

The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.^[13]

Brailsford's approach involved the constant measuring and monitoring of key statistics such as cyclists' power output, and training interventions targeting specific weaknesses, for example the relative weakness of Bradley Wiggins in mountain racing.^[14] As well as looking at traditional components of success such as physical fitness and tactics, it also entailed a more holistic strategy, embracing technological developments, athlete psychology, and everyday life:

Do you really know how to clean your hands?

Autobiography example life story One example of a case study in Atomic Habits is the story of Dave Brailsford, who became the head coach of the British Cycling team. Brailsford believed that if they made small improvements.

Without leaving the bits between your fingers? If you do things like that properly, you will get ill a little bit less. They're tiny things but if you clump them together it makes a big difference.^[13]

Peaking in the mids at the height of Brailsford's reputation, 'marginal gains' philosophy was discussed beyond cycling in the UK mainstream media.^[15] Brailsford's '1% Factor' was also discussed in business circles in the UK and internationally.^[16][17] In UK education policy, the Social Mobility Commission argued in that improvements in the academic performance of disadvantaged students in British schools could be compared to "the success of [the] British cycling team: the aggregation of marginal gains".^[18] Writing on the EU referendum, the political commentator Tim Shipman cited "the philosophy of the Team Sky cycling team" in making the argument that "tiny improvements" made by the Remain campaign could have changed the referendum's result.^[19]

Latterly, the philosophy has been criticised and ridiculed, including by Wiggins.^[20][21]

Great Britain cycling team

At the Olympic GamesGreat Britain won two cycling gold medals, their best performance since ^[22] Under Brailsford's leadership, the cycling team continued to improve, winning multiple world championships in road, track, BMX and mountain bike racing.

Great Britain led the cycling medal table at the and Olympic Games, winning eight golds at both, while British cyclists won 59 World Championships across different disciplines from to ^[23]

In reference to the success, Brailsford noted: "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together."^[24]

Team Sky/Team Ineos

In , Brailsford also became the manager of the new British-based professional team, Team Sky.^[25] In this role he oversaw Bradley Wiggins', Chris Froome's and Geraint Thomas' victories in the , , , , and Tour de France.^[26][27] In April , Brailsford resigned as performance director at British Cycling to concentrate on his Team Sky responsibilities.^[12]

Team Sky became Team Ineos in May , due to a change of sponsor.

Brailsford remained as team principal after the changeover.^[28]

In December , Brailsford was appointed Director of Sport at Ineos, overseeing a growing range of teams and disciplines sponsored by the group, including French football club Nice.^[3] His role as Team Principal at INEOS Grenadiers cycling team continued unaffected.^[29]

Doping controversy

In March the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published the report Combatting Doping in Sport.

Chapter 2 of the report, "British Cycling and Team Sky", focused on Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) gained by both organisations for the use of drugs on the WADAProhibited List, citing the defence used by Wiggins and Shane Sutton that TUEs were used to "find gains" and put oneself "back on a level playing field" with rivals.

The report alleged in particular that the drug triamcinolone had been "used to prepare" Wiggins "and possibly other riders supporting him" for the Tour de France, "not to treat medical need, but to improve his power to weight ratio ahead of the race". It concluded that Team Sky had crossed an "ethical line" by exploiting this loophole "to enhance the performance of riders".^[30]

Following the publication of the report, Brailsford was defended by Chris Froome.^[31]

Honours

References

Further reading

External links