Twelve months after their first appearance at the start of the Tour de France in Amsterdam, there is a different vibe about Britain's Team Sky. They are leaner and have lightened up. There is less talk about marginal gains and rather more about racing. There are no screens around their riders when they warm up before time trials. Most importantly, they seem like part of the Tour furniture rather than the new kids on the block. And if they have a motto for this year, it could be channelling Lance Armstrong to say "It's Not (Just) About the Tour".
"None of us enjoyed it last year, we've had a lot of success over the years and when things don't go well it's a bitter pill," the team principal, Dave Brailsford, says. The team realised that their 2010 season was too heavily oriented towards one rider, Bradley Wiggins, and one race, the Tour. When Wiggins bombed it had the inevitable knock-on effect on morale, and there was no plan B. "We've had a different philosophy this year, taking each race in its own right, then the next one. It's paid off. We've picked up good results. We've picked up momentum in the last couple of months."
Amid the intense interest in Sky it was easy to overlook one thing: this was a business involving 70 people that had to be thrown together from scratch and then put straight into a competitive environment. "It's normal that it's going to take time for it all to bed down," Sean Yates, the directeur sportif, says. "You need the hype to stop, you have to get your feet on the ground and get back to what we are here for. Getting from A to B as fast as possible without falling off."
There will be a leaner look about Sky at the Tour this year. They are bringing fewer staff, with a team of 26 including the riders. That too stems from the learning process. The race coach, Rod Ellingworth, cites the example of the riders' beds. Last year, the team experimented with bringing their own bedding, each specially adapted to suit the individual rider. "We've refined it. The riders either like it, or they don't. Some feel it doesn't make a difference, some want the Full Monty. So we have fewer of them, and we don't need an extra person just to do that job.
"One big difference is that [this year] we know where Brad is a lot more. He's more on the ball, he's trained hard. Brad, myself and Shane Sutton sat down in November and looked at what we could do to move things forward.
"We decided to dedicate a lot of Shane's time to one-to-one coaching with Brad. And Brad looked inside himself over the winter and worked out what he could change." Another difference, said the coach, is that he has more time to coach thanks to the arrival this winter of two new directeurs sportifs, and a second coach, the American Bobby Julich.
Another change is that the core Tour de France team of Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Juan Antonio Flecha, Simon Gerrans, and Rigoberto Urán of Colombia was named early in the year. "We took a few gambles last year," Ellingworth says. "It's not like we are hoping some will be good this time round."
The Tour squad have raced more together this year, because, Brailsford says, it was felt that the Tour team in 2010 had not been cohesive enough. Brailsford points to a stage in the Dauphiné Libéré recently when Wiggins missed a split towards the end and the entire team had to chase hard together with the BMC squad as the type of race episode that pulls the riders together.
That more cohesive spirit extends across the squad. "We all know each other," Ellingworth says. "It's easier when you are all on the same page. It's not anything special, it's just that people are more comfortable with each other. It's a massive new bunch of people that you are trying to get to work in the same rhythm." There were recruitment issues in 2010, with the lead directeur sportif, Scott Sunderland, leaving midway through the season, and some riders, clearly, not fitting into the Sky mould. Such, however, are the hazards of setting up this kind of enterprise from scratch.
The quest for marginal gains is still there, however. On Sunday, in the team time trial, Sky will use remodelled handlebars courtesy of the Greek carbon-fibre guru Dimitris Katsanis, who is one of the "secret squirrels" in charge of developing aerodynamic products for the Great Britain Olympic squad. They are smoothed out for better airflow, and offer the rider more options when he is trying to adopt an aerodynamic position.
Compared with 2010, Sky seem to be performing across the board, with a string of successes for their young sprinter Ben Swift, who makes his debut at the Tour today, Wiggins taking the biggest stage race win of his career at the Dauphiné Libéré – the most important stage race victory by a Briton in more than 20 years – and the Welshman Thomas picking up his first stage race victory as a professional in the Tour of Bavaria.
Young Britons such as Peter Kennaugh and Alex Dowsett have put in promising results as well. "Everything is three gears higher than last year," Ellingworth says. "We went into reverse during the [2010] Tour. But the best thing is, we've got at least two more gears to come."
"None of us enjoyed it last year, we've had a lot of success over the years and when things don't go well it's a bitter pill," the team principal, Dave Brailsford, says. The team realised that their 2010 season was too heavily oriented towards one rider, Bradley Wiggins, and one race, the Tour. When Wiggins bombed it had the inevitable knock-on effect on morale, and there was no plan B. "We've had a different philosophy this year, taking each race in its own right, then the next one. It's paid off. We've picked up good results. We've picked up momentum in the last couple of months."
Amid the intense interest in Sky it was easy to overlook one thing: this was a business involving 70 people that had to be thrown together from scratch and then put straight into a competitive environment. "It's normal that it's going to take time for it all to bed down," Sean Yates, the directeur sportif, says. "You need the hype to stop, you have to get your feet on the ground and get back to what we are here for. Getting from A to B as fast as possible without falling off."
There will be a leaner look about Sky at the Tour this year. They are bringing fewer staff, with a team of 26 including the riders. That too stems from the learning process. The race coach, Rod Ellingworth, cites the example of the riders' beds. Last year, the team experimented with bringing their own bedding, each specially adapted to suit the individual rider. "We've refined it. The riders either like it, or they don't. Some feel it doesn't make a difference, some want the Full Monty. So we have fewer of them, and we don't need an extra person just to do that job.
"We decided to dedicate a lot of Shane's time to one-to-one coaching with Brad. And Brad looked inside himself over the winter and worked out what he could change." Another difference, said the coach, is that he has more time to coach thanks to the arrival this winter of two new directeurs sportifs, and a second coach, the American Bobby Julich.
Another change is that the core Tour de France team of Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Juan Antonio Flecha, Simon Gerrans, and Rigoberto Urán of Colombia was named early in the year. "We took a few gambles last year," Ellingworth says. "It's not like we are hoping some will be good this time round."
The Tour squad have raced more together this year, because, Brailsford says, it was felt that the Tour team in 2010 had not been cohesive enough. Brailsford points to a stage in the Dauphiné Libéré recently when Wiggins missed a split towards the end and the entire team had to chase hard together with the BMC squad as the type of race episode that pulls the riders together.
That more cohesive spirit extends across the squad. "We all know each other," Ellingworth says. "It's easier when you are all on the same page. It's not anything special, it's just that people are more comfortable with each other. It's a massive new bunch of people that you are trying to get to work in the same rhythm." There were recruitment issues in 2010, with the lead directeur sportif, Scott Sunderland, leaving midway through the season, and some riders, clearly, not fitting into the Sky mould. Such, however, are the hazards of setting up this kind of enterprise from scratch.
The quest for marginal gains is still there, however. On Sunday, in the team time trial, Sky will use remodelled handlebars courtesy of the Greek carbon-fibre guru Dimitris Katsanis, who is one of the "secret squirrels" in charge of developing aerodynamic products for the Great Britain Olympic squad. They are smoothed out for better airflow, and offer the rider more options when he is trying to adopt an aerodynamic position.
Compared with 2010, Sky seem to be performing across the board, with a string of successes for their young sprinter Ben Swift, who makes his debut at the Tour today, Wiggins taking the biggest stage race win of his career at the Dauphiné Libéré – the most important stage race victory by a Briton in more than 20 years – and the Welshman Thomas picking up his first stage race victory as a professional in the Tour of Bavaria.
Young Britons such as Peter Kennaugh and Alex Dowsett have put in promising results as well. "Everything is three gears higher than last year," Ellingworth says. "We went into reverse during the [2010] Tour. But the best thing is, we've got at least two more gears to come."
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