David Walsh Given Access All Areas To Team Sky

furiousox

David Brailsford has offered David Walsh unlimited access to team sky.
Good PR move and should hopefully lead to some good articles from Walsh through the year.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/cycling/article1206449.ece?shareToken=ccea51abc589211e28ad23ea10f8b076

average_runner

furiousox wrote: »

David Brailsford has offered David Walsh unlimited access to team sky.
Good PR move and should hopefully lead to some good articles from Walsh through the year.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/cycling/article1206449.ece?shareToken=ccea51abc589211e28ad23ea10f8b076

Of course its a good move, considering they got rid of a few suspicious people. Didnt they turn kimmage down last year.

RobFowl

average_runner wrote: »

Of course its a good move, considering they got rid of a few suspicious people. Didnt they turn kimmage down last year.

i'm going to sound hypocritical but for a team to sucessfully compete at a GT they need people around them they trust but also who they get on with. Brad didn't like PK supposedly and blocked it. I can see where he is coming from but with cycling where it is teams are going to have to put up with more interference from people they may not nessecerly like...

leftism

History has shown us that Walsh is just as happy to ask the tough questions as Kimmage, but possibly manages to do it in a more politically correct way. Or its possible the optics of Kimmage asking questions (as an ex-professional who doped) doesn't sit well with current riders.

Either way, this is a great move by Team Sky! Good for team PR and good for transparency in the sport.

average_runner

RobFowl wrote: »

i'm going to sound hypocritical but for a team to sucessfully compete at a GT they need people around them they trust but also who they get on with. Brad didn't like PK supposedly and blocked it. I can see where he is coming from but with cycling where it is teams are going to have to put up with more interference from people they may not nessecerly like...

So why let Walsh in?

Beasty

average_runner wrote: »

So why let Walsh in?

Check out leftism's post above. Have you read the article? It seems quite clear that Sky are trying to answer their critics with this initative, but I guess there will always be some cynics out there whatever they do.

What else do you think Sky should be doing?

Darkglasses

Beasty wrote: »

Have you read the article?

Many of us haven't because it isn't free.

seve65

basically Walsh has got access any time, any place any where a bit like the old Martini advert. During training, during races, and if they havent got a room for him, the Dr has volunteered to share.

Beasty

Darkglasses wrote: »

Many of us haven't because it isn't free.

It was this afternoon (although clearly not now!)

furiousox

The article was free to view earlier today but not now.

In summary, last November in Manchester Dave Brailsford approached Walsh asking what was the perception of his team within the sport.
Walsh said that like a lot of people, he wanted to believe, but.....
After hearing this, Brailsford made Walsh an offer that he couldn't refuse.
Namely full access to the team whenever/wherever he wishes.
<snip>
Walsh has committed to following the team to see especially how Dombrowski and Boswell progress in their SKY careers.

Beasty

Sorry furiousox, but as the article is now only viewable via subscription I've had to remove the quotes (and delete one of my posts that quoted a sentence from the article)

el tel

This develeopment has given me a warm fuzzy feeling en mi estómago.

Darkglasses

furiousox wrote: »

snip snip snip

Well reading that has certainly made me feel a lot more positive about the Team Sky project

Beasty

... it's an extension of Boardman's Secret Squirrel Club - available on a "need to know" basis only

furiousox

Quote:
Originally Posted by furiousox
snip snip snip

Darkglasses wrote: »

Well reading that has certainly made me feel a lot more positive about the Team Sky project

Yes it seems certain members of the team have recently had vasectomies.
I'd love to be able to say more but sadly I'm forbidden.

Darkglasses

furiousox wrote: »

Yes it seems certain members of the team have recently had vasectomies.

Cutting edge weight-loss program?

RobFowl

I may be naive (but certainly don't think so) but am sold on SKY's vision for pro racing. i believed Wiggo won clean and I believe that they are a clean team doing everything they possibly can to prove that.

For trying everything they can to make the sport clean while also trying to win (and not just the TDF either, classics etc as well) they deserve every support.

Other teams like Garmin and FDJ are trying other stategies which also look good.

There are real beams of light streaming into our sport at pro level now.

petethedrummer

A positive step. All it took was nine months of bad press.

elduggo

<Mod snip> But there are probably no legal issues with my saying I think they're very stupid people. Lots of Brailsford's decisions have turned into PR disasters for both he and Sky. I can't see this Walsh thing being a PR disaster (theres no way Walsh has free reign to say what he wants - he works for the same people), but I can't see anything useful coming from it either. Say something positive and its a case of a fellow Murdoch employee not spitting in the soup. Say something negative - well thats just not going to be allowed happen.

Why was the first article mostly about Dombrowski? Why not more about Wiggins and Froome, their spat, the recent quotes from each, Froome's mysterious illness, etc. Sure, I expect theres more to come but I think Walsh is committing career suicide on this one. If he is anything but thorough and sceptical in this, the Lance thing is going to look personal. Its already starting to seem that way to me. Whereas Kimmage is definitely has the best interests of the sport at heart and seems willing to chase anyone that might not be playing fair, who else has Walsh gone after? Hes starting to disappoint me.

And judging by Kimmage's tweets yesterday, I reckon this is going to prove a divisive issue between them.

tfrancer

elduggo wrote: »

Why was the first article mostly about Dombrowski? Why not more about Wiggins and Froome, their spat, the recent quotes from each, Froome's mysterious illness, etc. Sure, I expect theres more to come but I think Walsh is committing career suicide on this one. If he is anything but thorough and sceptical in this, the Lance thing is going to look personal. Its already starting to seem that way to me. Whereas Kimmage is definitely has the best interests of the sport at heart and seems willing to chase anyone that might not be playing fair, who else has Walsh gone after? Hes starting to disappoint me.

And judging by Kimmage's tweets yesterday, I reckon this is going to prove a divisive issue between them.

They are both "the good guys", but is one of them a "better" good guy than the other?

elduggo

RobFowl wrote: »

i believed Wiggo won clean and I believe that they are a clean team doing everything they possibly can to prove that.

fair enough mods. However, if my comment is not permitted then I would contest that comments such as the above should not be permitted either.

(nothing personal RobFowl. I stated a contrary opinion to yours and got a slap on the wrist. All well and good, but allowing only one side of a (in my opinion) 2-sided argument, is a tad unfair).

Beasty

If you have a question for mods, PM them, do not respond in thread. Even hinting at someone being involved in doping leaves Boards exposed to potential litigation. The owners do not permit us to allow such risk (however remote) to be taken.

Suggesting someone is clean does not expose Boards to any risk

Any questions, PM me. Do not respond in-thread

Thanks

RobFowl

Beasty wrote: »

Suggesting someone is clean does not expose Boards to any risk

I am in the happy position of knowing 100% that certain pro riders are clean and they are bloody good ones

It's not alll bad out there you know.........

Flandria

tfrancer wrote: »

They are both "the good guys", but is one of them a "bitter" good guy than the other?

FYP;)

mcgratheoin

RobFowl wrote: »

doing everything they possibly can to prove that.

Gotta disagree on this one. This is a very positive step to try to generate some of the trust that has been missing between the pro community and fans, but up to now Sky have not been pro-active or open enough about showing that they are fully committed to clean racing.

• They hired Leinders, skirted the issue when it initially came up and have never fully addressed it.
• They did not follow the procedures that they themselves trumpeted when hiring their initial set of personnel and then
• They agreed to let a prominent anti-doping journalist embed and follow them and then withdrew that invitation following a critical piece penned by said journalist

I think that they are a clean team trying to do things the right way, but too often over the last few years they have talked the talk and failed to walk the walk. Hopefully this is a first step towards a more open policy.

Lumen

mcgratheoin wrote: »

Gotta disagree on this one

Tense is important. RF stated that they are doing everything they can. All your examples are from the past.

elduggo

Lumen wrote: »

Tense is important. RF stated that they are doing everything they can. All your examples are from the past.

they're relevant to all their race results up to the present time.

this same conversation in 12 months time, with the perspective of another years worth of results, will tell us much about both 2012 and 2013 IMO.

Lumen

elduggo wrote: »

they're relevant to all their race results up to the present time.

Sure, but they're not relevant to RobFowl's point which mcgratheoin claimed to disagree with.

mcgratheoin

Lumen wrote: »

Tense is important. RF stated that they are doing everything they can. All your examples are from the past.

Fair enough, but if they were currently doing everything possible, they could also..

• Release power data from all their riders
• Publish the blood values from their riders
• Fully address how they got it so wrong that they had to fire a bunch of staff last year

It's not that I don't think this is a good move, but I think that if we say "they're doing everything possible" then there's a danger that the tough questions will not be asked and we end up facilitating a return to the situation that cycling has repeatedly found itself in.

The statement "we're doing everything possible" (and I realise that it was RF not Sky who said this) is very similar to the same refrains that were trotted out by all the serial dopers over the last 10 to 15 years - "what else can we do but pass all the doping tests?". Given the severe lack of trust that I (and I'd assume a lot of fans) have in riders, DS's and the ability of the anti-doping system to catch cheats, there can always be more done by individuals and their teams to repair that trust.

mcgratheoin

Lumen wrote: »

Sure, but they're not relevant to RobFowl's point which you claimed to disagree with.

that was me, not elduggo in fairness..

Chips Lovell

I think it's a step in the right direction. Brailsford's PR has been absolutely disastrous and he's managed to draw suspicion on his team when really there shouldn't be any, given their stated goals.

Junior

worth looking at Kimmages timeline on twitter at the moment..

petethedrummer

Lumen wrote: »

Tense is important. RF stated that they are doing everything they can. All your examples are from the past.

Agreed, last year was a totally different era. 2012 may be a write off in terms of transparency and commitment to ideals. But that was over 33 days ago now. Time to let it lie. What's important is that we look forward to 2013 with a fresh sense of renewal.

petethedrummer

I'm pressing the reset button on my brain. It helps when following cycling.

M cebee

Junior wrote: »

worth looking at Kimmages timeline on twitter at the moment..

they'd never be in cahoots would they?
kimmage and walsh
walsh with the sky story on ST
kimmage with the cross-examination on twitter

hope i'm not breaking charter with my conspiracy nonsense?

Lumen

petethedrummer wrote: »

Agreed, last year was a totally different era. 2012 may be a write off in terms of transparency and commitment to ideals. But that was over 33 days ago now. Time to let it lie. What's important is that we look forward to 2013 with a fresh sense of renewal.

I see your positivity lasted about 24 hours before slumping back into sarcastic defeatism. :pac:

petethedrummer

Lumen wrote: »

I see your positivity lasted about 24 hours before slumping back into sarcastic defeatism. :pac:

I realised that it's just words. Something Sky are very good at. Until Walsh makes an appearance on the bus then that's all it is.

tfrancer

Junior wrote: »

worth looking at Kimmages timeline on twitter at the moment..

I don't look at Twitter at all, and I do not look at Kimmage on Twitter at all, at all, at all.

Slo_Rida

petethedrummer wrote: »

I realised that it's just words. Something Sky are very good at. Until Walsh makes an appearance on the bus then that's all it is.

Agree, it's just PR and words to add to the Sky gravy train. As elduggo says, until a piece of cutting (edge) journalism comes from it then IMO, it's a sell-out by Walsh and a ST advert for team Sky.

tfrancer

Slo_Rida wrote: »

Agree, it's just PR and words to add to the Sky gravy train. As elduggo says, until a piece of cutting (edge) journalism comes from it then IMO, it's a sell-out by Walsh and a ST advert for team Sky.

What "cutting edge" journalism are you expecting? If there's no story, there's no story. Everybody behaving themselves is boring!

Slo_Rida

tfrancer wrote: »

What "cutting edge" journalism are you expecting? If there's no story, there's no story. Everybody behaving themselves is boring!

It's hard to deny there's tension between Froome and WiggAns, there's a huge story there but Sky will let him write what they want read, end of. I won't start buying the ST for this that's all I'm saying!!

elduggo

tfrancer wrote: »

What "cutting edge" journalism are you expecting? If there's no story, there's no story. Everybody behaving themselves is boring!

fair comment. However, for me it'd be something to show that Sky really have changed their ways, that they really are committed to being transparent. But, to do this they need to set the record straight about some things. A good start would be to take Kimmage on. If they have nothing to hide they should have no problem doing so.

Lumen

petethedrummer wrote: »

I realised that it's just words. Something Sky are very good at. Until Walsh makes an appearance on the bus then that's all it is.

Tough audience.

RobFowl

elduggo wrote: »

A good start would be to take Kimmage on.
.

Seeing as how he's pretty much said wiggins tour win was suspicious i can't see that happening , ever....

petethedrummer

Lumen wrote: »

Tough audience.

It's like Schrodinger's Cat. With Wiggins as the Cat, bloodbags as the radioactive source and the bus as the box.

Someone is going to have to look in the box.

elduggo

RobFowl wrote: »

Seeing as how he's pretty much said wiggins tour win was suspicious i can't see that happening , ever....

I tend to agree with you. However they need expect that there will be a PR hit. Hence, need to be careful if they decide to continue ignoring him (Bradley aside, but thats a different story - he could do worse than be sent on a course on dealing with the media).

JM Skipton

I think Walsh is pretty open minded here, I don't think he is going to get sucked into the PR spin by team Sky.He will slowly build evidence if any and ask the relevant questions. Judging by Kimmages comments on Twitter there are definitely elements within the Sky setup that need further investigation. But as Walsh said himself he has not formed an opinion yet on the Sky suspicions so it may get interesting over the next few months especially if he is allowed access while they are racing.

Lumen

JM Skipton wrote: »

I think Walsh is pretty open minded here, I don't think he is going to get sucked into the PR spin by team Sky.He will slowly build evidence if any and ask the relevant questions.

I think it is folly to expect a journalist to investigate doping and "build evidence". That's the job of WADA/UCI/police etc.

Walsh's job is to write stories not police the sport, and he can't be expected to spend his life trailing the team around, looking in bins for syringes in coke cans.

The fact that Walsh has been given access is a recognition by Sky that they've lost control of the story.

JM Skipton

Lumen wrote: »

I think it is folly to expect a journalist to investigate doping and "build evidence". That's the job of WADA/UCI/police etc.

Walsh's job is to write stories not police the sport, and he can't be expected to spend his life trailing the team around, looking in bins for syringes in coke cans.

The fact that Walsh has been given access is a recognition by Sky that they've lost control of the story.

You conveniently left out the "if any" bit of my statement and as I said he is there with an open mind as a sports journalist and will report on what he feels will be of interest to his readers. Which may or may not involve syringes in coke cans

pprendeville

not to hijack this thread but there was a fantastic thread before Christmas that had Brailsford as so transparent he had removed the window from his office. anyone got the link and could the person who wrote it come up with some more. priceless stuff so it was.

Flandria

^^^
Drum roll for Pete...