The Hegelian said:
I'm taking a nice little drink of schadenfreude on this.
If only for this reason: Sky have been PR'ing their backsides off for a good year around Wiggins, UKAD, jiffy bag etc. Anyone who examines those discourses closely can see how dodgy it all looks, and how much it destroys their credibility.
But: good expensive PR can override careful analysis of the discourse. And by the end of the year, they had a tdf, a vuelta and the Wiggins stink kind of blowing away.
And then: boom Froome. 12 months of painstaking PR utterly destroyed - no matter which way the cookie crumbles from here, the cost to the 'brand' is massive, and even the most brilliant spin doctors probably have to concede that the game is up.
I tend to agree.
But is the game really up?
DB survived thus far. And most agree without him there is no TeamSky.
They got a huge squad, even without Froome. And we all know it will only take a few months for them to have the next big rider of the decade lined up.
That is presuming they will stick with the program, but perhaps the great manager has gone tired and no longer can control all the details (marginal gains). Hence the casual mistake as with froome?
Now its all-in or fold.
My judgement is they are better off going all in, as folding now would kinda cancel all their achievements.
The pride is strong with this one.
Another factor is the UCI and WADA. They have been looking (as usual) a bit toothless as of late.
And my hunch is that the Kreuziger case was a massive blow for Cookson.
He invested himself in it (probably was told it was done and dusted). Only to see him walk.
Money and rss is a deciding factor here. And everytime they open pandoras box, it just backfires on so many levels.
Everyone is more happer with less scandals. And less loosing!
So the incentive to pursue a team like Sky even more, is close to zero.
I reckon it's mostly up to what DB wants and is willing to put up with until the storm is on recant.