Sir Dave Brailsford has left his role as team principal at professional cycling team INEOS Grenadiers, hinting he will be dedicating even more of his time to rebuilding Manchester United.
Sporting director for INEOS since 2021, Brailsford is a trusted aide of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and was already set to play a major role at Old Trafford, with the new investment set to shake up the club’s sporting operations in a bid to restore the glory days not seen since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
Even with that much broader job description in recent times, the 59-year-old had still been managing the Grenadiers – previously known as Team Sky. Now, however, he will be stepping away from directly working in cycling for the first time in decades.
Brailsford was appointed team principal for Team Sky when it launched in 2010, delivering among a lengthy list of international successes, Tour de France wins in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the latter coming after being taken over by INEOS and rebranded.
Before that, Brailsford was the man in charge of British cycling’s surge to global dominance at multiple Olympics – across numerous cycling disciplines and events – having been appointed performance director in 2003. It was a position he held until 2014.
Although his lifetime of expertise lies in a different sport, Brailsford is revered for his philosophy centred on the principles of ‘marginal gains’. It is translatable to other disciplines and even things like business, with the idea that doing each constituent part of a task – such as riding a bike – just 1% better than before will lead to a significant improvement in the overall end result.
United caused a stir in the football landscape on Saturday with the appointment of Omar Berrada as the club’s new chief executive, poaching the Spaniard from the City Football Group. The new INEOS contingent are believed to have massively influenced the widely praised coup.