DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Cyclists were left battered and bruised after the finish line was moved just moments before the end of the race and they crashed. I’m joined now from Corsica by the man in charge of Team Sky, the winners last year, Sir Dave Brailsford. A very good morning to you Sir Dave and just reflecting on yesterday it was a bit of a farce, a bus stuck under the finish 5 minutes before the riders arrived.  

SIR DAVE BRAILSFORD: Yes, as if there wasn’t enough excitement and nervousness around because of the race itself on the first stage, everybody knows something is going to happen on the first stage of the Tour De France, nobody knows what but I don’t think in our wildest dreams we expected that to be honest but it all added to the excitement and all was well in the end but it was a lot of drama I must admit in the final half an hour of the race.  

DM: Do you feel a bit for Mark Cavendish. I know he’s no longer with Team Sky but that crash just before the end cost him a pop at stage victory and hence wearing the yellow jersey for the first time.  

SDB: Yes, really disappointing for Mark, disappointing for British Cycling really. He’s in super form, I’m absolutely convinced he’d had taken out at sprint but unfortunately a crash just in front of him, he didn’t actually go down but the crash in front of him made him stop and once you’ve stopped and all the other guys are riding at 60k an hour, at that point of the game there’s no coming back unfortunately.  

DM: It just highlights doesn’t it that the Tour De France is not just about having the fittest and most talented riders, it’s about staying out of trouble as well and I know three Team Sky has actually had a bit of minor trouble yesterday.  

SDB: Yes that’s right, certainly from our point of view with a view to trying to win the race overall, the biggest challenge potentially is trying to keep all the guys upright and on the bike and fit and healthy. Yesterday, Chris actually crashed in the neutralized zone before the race had even started proper, it was only a minor tumble, he was okay and then Ian Stannard went down in an early crash, he went down really hard and then Geraint Thomas had a pretty nasty fall to be honest, both had to go off for x-rays after the end of the stage but they are tough guys they are all ready to go again this morning and fighting fit.  

DM: What’s the mood in the camp today then, you want it a bit calmer I presume. Tell us about today’s stage?  

SDB: Well it’s a relatively short stage, it’s got quite a bit climb in the middle and after that we’ve got a long 60k descent and there’s a nasty little climb about 12k to go which is about a kilometre long and so we could potentially seen Cannondale really riding hard on the climb in the middle of the stage, potentially try and drop Mark and the other sprinters, try and get Peter Segan to the finish on his own and we could likely see then a big chase on a downhill for the sprinter team to try and get back into contention and then as we come into the final there’s this 1k kick which is pretty tough and drops down off that onto the flat coast road and then a flat 10k into the finish so I’d expect the sprinter teams to animate the race to be honest but equally all the teams with GC riders will be trying to keep them out of trouble and of course what happens is after yesterday everybody will be that little bit more nervous and everybody will want to keep their guys to the front and the simple mathematics are that all the teams will be pretty much telling their riders to do the same thing and the road simply isn’t big enough for everybody to fit there so it does become a bit of a war of attrition so I think the mood in our camp is one of controlled aggression this morning, I think we’re up for it, we’re ready for a difficult day and it’s all around keeping Froomie and Richie Port well positioned at the front of the bunch and at the position where your’re least likely to crash, I think that’s our objective for the day.  

DM: Yes, that’s all you can do and how is Froomie, how is Chris Froome, bearing that burden of overall favourtism, I mean you read some of the newspapers and he’s already won the Tour De France with three weeks to go?  

SDB: Well, Chris is an intelligent guy, he’s got a good head on his shoulders and the key thing at this point of the game is not to think about what other people are thinking, it’s not to think about the outcome before we get there, it’s to think about a process and what we keep trying to drum into the guys if you just think about what he has to do now, in this next minute, this next hour, what’s he got to do to be ready for the start of the race, get through kilometre one, kilometre two and concentrate on the process and process, process, process and not worry about the outcome, not worry about what other people are thinking or what other people are saying and just concentrate on what we can do and concentrate on a process and before you know it hopefully 21 day goes by and we’ll find out where we got to in Paris, that’s the way we try to approach it.  

DM: That’s an interesting insight, you talk about concentrating on the process, you know what other teams have said and some of the other riders who say, well unfortunately in the past the Tour and other rides were dominated by chemicals when it comes to science, well Team Sky have now turned it to physics, that you’re over obsessed with the numbers, the watts output, the heart rate and the rest of it, why don’t you just let the riders ride?  

SDB: Well I think they are only a guide, we are very fortunate in cycling that it lends itself to physics so you can measure a lot of things, you measure power and of course you can measure physiology, but it’s only a guide it will only ever be a guide and I think there’s a bit of a misconception that we use all these numbers to dictate how the riders ride because we don’t. What we do is we use those numbers to inform us and the support staff and the coaching team and the sports scientists of how to help the rider to improve. So it’s not the fact the numbers are not driving the whole performance side of it, they are informing the performance side of it but at the end of the day it’s a human endeavour, it’s a guy on a bike riding as hard as he can and that will never be taken away from the sport.  

DM: And of course we have got to feel for Sir Bradley Wiggins not able to defend his title, what’s he doing during the Tour, are you in touch with him?  

SDB: Yes absolutely. Bradley is now going to spend some time in Majorca raising the level of intensity of his training. He’s reset his goals, some really good goals for the back end of the second half of the season and he will work hard towards that so Bradley has actually come to terms with the disappointment, he’s moved on, he’s locked on some new goals, he’s motivated and he’s keen to get out there and start racing again and credit to him to be honest, I mean it’s not an easy little period that he’s gone through but he’s a great champion. We are very very proud of him in Team Sky and he’s not a great champion for nothing and I’m sure the second half of the season will show us exactly why we all like him so much.

DM: Indeed, but what about that knee injury, presumably he’s more or less over it. If you didn’t have Chris Froome and you obviously want to defend the title, could you have patched Sir Brad up and he be your Number 1?  

SDB: No, absolutely categorically not. I think he was injured and that injury took him out of being in contention even for selection of the Tour and to come into this race you have got to be 100%, you’ve got to be absolutely on top of your game and ready to go and bringing anybody to this race who is 90% fit or 85% fit just wouldn’t work and it’s not something that we would do but we’re lucky in Team Sky, we’ve got strength in depth and apart from Chris Froome we’ve Richie Port, our youngest reigning rider and he is absolutely flying and if anything should happen to Chris, heavens forbid, then I’m sure that Richie would pick up the mantle and run with that and do a damn good job.  

DM: Just let me push you on that, you really think, heaven forbid if something did happen to Chris Froome that you could still go very close with Richie Port?  

SDB: Yes we think so. He’s climbing exceptionally well and he time trials very very well and he’s had a great season as a breakthrough season and who knows, I think he’s probably amongst the top 3 or 4 riders in this race so he’s here to work for Chris but should something happen he’s a fantastic back up plan.  

DM: Sir Dave Brailsford, great to talk to you. Thank you very indeed for sparing the time. Good luck today.  

End of Transcript