The genius of Sir David Brailsford (or what you didn't read yesterday in The Sunday Times)…
September 2009: Brailsford outlines his plans for Team Sky to win the Tour de France clean in five years. Roger Palfreeman, the BC team doc,
is a trump card. "It's one of the key things," he tells Jeremy Whittle of The Times. "We have Roger Palfreeman doing internal testing but…
we also work with the UCI and UK sport. We have a clear anti-doping strategy." March 2010: Palfreeman leaves BC. The media are not informed.
June 7, 2010: Brailsford offers a journalist from The Sunday Times complete and unrestricted access to the team for the Tour de France.
June 16 2010: The journalist spends four days with Bradley Wiggins at a Team Sky training camp in the Pyrenees.
June 27 2010: An interview with Wiggins is published. Five days later, on the eve of the Tour in Rotterdam, Brailsford informs the journo…
...that complete and unrestricted access now comes with certain restrictions: No access to the team for the first week of the race…
...No access to Michael Barry for the duration of the race and some tap dancing on Palfreeman. Q: Do you have his number?
A: "No, he handed his BC phone back. If I can get hold of him I'll give him your number and he can call you."
July 3 2010: The journalist files a story about Barry, Palfreeman and Brailsford's surprise about-turn for the ST. It isn't published.
(Sometime) 2010: The former Rabobank doctor, Geert Leinders, currently assiting an anti-doping inquiry in Belgium, joins Team Sky.
May 2012: Leinders association with the team is questioned by fans on Twitter. July 11, 2012 - the first mention of Leinders in The Times
October 2012: Leinders "80-day-a year" (whatever that means) contract with Sky is not renewed.
December 2, 2012: "CLEAN BREAKAWAY" - the first mention of Leinders in The Sunday Times.
February 3, 2013: "NO HIDING PLACE: Battle for the credibility of cycling brings extraordinary offer from Dave Brailsford" appears in ST.
There is no mention that this offer has been made before. Or how Brailsford, and the newspaper, conducted themselves.
Bottom line: When they start applying the same standards to Team Sky as they did to Lance Armstrong, I'll start taking them seriously.