The Medal Factory
Kenny Pryde
2016 was a bad year for British Cycling and Team Sky. British Cycling was implicated in a bullying scandal whilst Team Sky came under scrutiny for medical doping. This book tackles these issues, but that’s not why I read it. I wanted to learn how a world-beating organisation was built from nothing by a handful of dedicated people.
One of the revelations of the book is Peter Keen. I had assumed that Dave Brailsford was the mastermind, but this book shows Keen’s role. He takes a data driven and scientific approach to cycling, working with Chris Boardman in the late 80’s and early 90’s. 1997 was a turning point. The concept of lottery funding from UK sport is introduced and Keen goes in to bat for British Cycling to secure some of it. His vision is much grander than anyone else inside British Cycling. He studies the Australian Institute of Sport, outlines Britain’s position in cycling, and sets specific medal goals for the olympics. The final 7000 word document formed much of the success we see today. I wish I could get a copy!
Brailsford is introduced quite far into the journey. He comes in as a kit procurer for the Cycling World Class Performance Programme. How he gets from there to performance director and founding Team Sky is a case study in ambition, opportunism and luck. Once in charge he is described as ‘can-do’. This passage is illustrative:
“We’re going to win”. He’d put a stake in the ground, way over in the distance, saying, “OK, that’s what we want to get to,” an Olympic gold… and say “OK, how do we plot a course to get there?” His skill from there was getting the best people involved and making them feel good. This is tinged in the early days with a sense that Brailsford was winging it though.
It reminds me that the characteristics we attribute to organisations, almost as though they are innate, are instead the product people’s work. Things could have gone the other way.
The ruthlessness and relentlessness of elite sport
Brailsford comes under material pressure to quit once the doping and bullying scandals break, but he steadfastly refuses to crack. He quotes “harmonious teams don’t necessarily deliver results.” The author goes on to say:
“In practice nobody really gives a flying one about ‘team harmony’ so long as everyone is lined up and committed to the goal of winning the bike race. If every rider knows what they are doing and why they are being asked to do that job, the strong likelihood is that you’ll get the desired result. If, on the other hand, management flaps about trying to ensure that everyone is happy, desperate to achieve a blissfully harmonious group, it’s a waste of time and energy. Team Sky… is a professional sports team intent on delivering results.”
Brailsford sees all this conflict as part and parcel of elite sport, he doesn’t switch off: “What I’ve finally got my head around is that you’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to run… because your competition is running hard as well, so you sprint until the day you retire, because otherwise you’re going to go backwards.”
Team Sky are depicted as masters of innovation. This book point out that many of the trends they are credited for had been practiced by other teams for years. The bedding policy - the same bedding is laid on every bed at every hotel stop on a Grand Tour - is one example, Rabobank had done this for a number of seasons before.
One of the best bits about the book is the concluding remarks:
“When you subjected modern professional sport ot forensic levels of scrutiny, it turned out there was no place for sentiment and precious little romance. Racing the Tour de France wasn’t really like a three-week summer road trip… The realisation that ‘marginal gains’ were applied everywhere, from nutrition to sports medicine - not just in the air flow over skinsuits - seemed to come as an uncomfortable surprise.”
Other quotes in this vain.
“Elite sport is brutal. British Cycling is a performance programme, it’s not a day care centre” and another “When you’re a rider, the best thing to do is concentrate on being the best you can be and ignoring as much as possible, things going on around you. I’m not bothered by what’s going on around me, I’m bothered by what I’m doing. Coaches are there to challenge people. They maybe do make you feel uneasy, but that’s a necessary evil. You need to challenge yourself; that shouldn’t bother you. What should bother you is getting beaten soundly by the opposition”.
The Team Sky doctor, Richard Freeman, adds:
“Sport is not always healthy. I’ve had athletes competing on anti-depressants and I’ve had to withdraw riders from the intensity of their training programmes because of their mental health… I have been astounded that depression, eating disorders and self-harm don’t stop success. Performance sport is a cauldron, but you need to be able to stand the heat, gold medals aren’t given away.”
Coaches don’t need to have been athletes themselves
Tim Kerrison is brought in as a performance coach. He’s one of those characters who had never cycled himself, but was able to apply sport science principles to the cycling problem and crack it. He’s gone on to coach Froome to all of his major wins. The book describes how he comes into the team and does a post-mortem of the first Sky season. He identifies 25 areas of performance (I’d like to know what they are!) and points out that Sky had tried to do all 25, rather than focusing on 4-5 key areas that would deliver best value. He decided to focus on specific training, nutrition, altitude and heat. i.e. you need to train in the same conditions that you race in.