Team Sky's 'marginal gains' are nonsense - Barry Ryan

Cycling journalist Barry Ryan joined us to discuss the Tour de France, Team Sky's approach and why there are boos for Geraint Thomas.
Brought to you in association with Screwfix.ie.

[@thumbsdownbandit]

Apparently Great Britain is a limitless source for Tour-winning asthmatics.

[@MrWesman43]

Except for the fact that Thomas doesn't have Asthma, and I wouldn't call 2 limitless ;)

[@tomasb4789]

It's pretty normal for athletes to develop asthma and Subutomol isn't performance enhancing, at most they use it for weight los

[@thumbsdownbandit]

Wesley Manning Then let's call Britain a cornucopia for Tour-winning asthmatics.

[@thumbsdownbandit]

Tomas B Did you fall on your head or are you a member of British Cycling?

[@Peterkramer929]

It IS performance enhancing.

[@MrWesman43]

Thomas was in 4th place in 2015 (his last healthy tour) until stage 18, while in the service of Froome, he showed then his true potential. Since then he has all but given up on the classics & semi classics instead choosing to concentrate fully on stage races and GC. He has had some brutal bad luck (Giro police and tour crash) last year. He's lighter than ever and this tour, so far, has suited him down to a T. He benefitted from Sky's very strong TTT and other so called rivals have shown themselves to be serial failures ( Bardet and Quintana ) others have the Giro in their legs (Froome and Dumoulin) the remainder have crashed (Landa, Nibali, Uran) yet its still easier for many "experts" to cast suspicion over him than to actually recognise the facts staring you in the face.

[@Ystadcop]

Barry who? Credentials please. Was he a cyclist, was he a pro, did he win anything? So does he know what he's talking about?

[@mikeofiveschu]

The French boo because they don't like the yellow jersey and prefer the heroic underdog loser. They hated merckx, then when a spectator injured merckx, they booed the French guy who eventually won. They also hated anquetil and booed him. That's just how it's always been and still is. They'd probably boo bardet too if he was winning everything

[@7tom1ja]

its more like everybody outside of UK and Kenya he he

[@marty197666]

They don’t like a winner! Hell they even booed Armstrong

[@jonesy4329]

bardet winning lol

[@Jack-xi8ji]

What a load of one-eyed tripe. Claims and aspersions that are completely unsubstantiated and can be called 'speculation' at best. I hope these guys get sued for slander.

[@Jack-xi8ji]

OK. Post your irrefutable evidence here then. No? Thought not.

[@ivanboesky1520]

Froome has never been an asthmatic and he's a pathological doping cheater just like Wiggy and Thomas. In his own book, froome never mentions having asthma, yet mentioned numerous other physical ailments on his way to becoming a pro cyclist. Froome has never been able to prove with a non Sky team doctor that he has ever had asthma. not being an asthmatic every time he uses salbutamol to lose weight and maintain muscle this increasing his power to weight ratio he is doping and cheating and everyone with a brain knows it. Team Sky = Team Dopers

[@MrWesman43]

Bob I suggest you educate yourself before embarrassing yourself further.

[@soundninja99]

Hey! It's dr. Bob again. I see you still haven't looked up exercise induced asthma.

[@TheSheriff1989]

Bob Gardner amen

[@TheSheriff1989]

TTate if froome has "exercise induced asthma" still doesn't explain why it was never mentioned in his book. He did a lot of riding in kenya as a jnr which surely would have triggered it?

[@soundninja99]

Clinton Bush I'm no doctor, but as far as I know, EIA is actually triggered by taking in cold air through the mouth instead of it being warmed by the nasal passage first. I'm sure he found higher and colder mountains after he moved from Kenya.

[@rdh-daliasjb3796]

Have to wonder whether some of these journalists actually like cycling.

[@marklangman7532]

Barry rides a tricycle .... And this is journalism????

[@marty197666]

Actually three years before Wiggins won the tour, in 09, he finished fourth. Pretty sure that’s not the grupetto

[@NC-ck5oj]

Wiggins clearly cheated

[@geoffairey3256]

anti sky how many x sky are now gc riders for other teams

[@carterka1]

Marginal gains is nonsense? Marginal gains is the single provable method of improving performance. Ever since 1949 when Shoichi Saito suggested Creative Idea Suggestion System it has been used in every successful industry, sport or military endeavor. Many of the marginal gains that people have ridiculed sky for have been adopted by the other teams. When the US Postal team started using a chef to control and improve nutrition it was mocked by everyone. Today a team would be irresponsible not to have a chef, it is no longer seen as a quirk and even a non athlete understands the importance of nutrition. When the Team Sky bus first turned up it was mocked and ridiculed. Team Sky's thinking was simple improving the riders ability to recover is important. Having a team bus allows them to control and improve the recovery. Now every team has a bus, why because team Sky was right. A bus does not win the race that is the point made by Eiji Toyoda when he set up the marginal gains unit in 1950. What he saw when he visited the Ford factory in 1950 shocked him first it was the Industrial might of America, how can a company compete against such a formidable foe. The 2nd and most important thing that shocked him was the inefficiencies. Marginal Gains, TQM, kaizen has many different names depending on your industry. Formula 1 is often regarded as the pinnacle of motor sport engineering. In Formula one marginal gains are sought with little consideration to the monetary cost. A faction of a second improvement or marginal gain is the difference between 1st and 5th in qualifying. Big budgets help but they do not guarantee wining. When they first started Sky's budget was huge but for the last few years Sky's budget is comparable to all the other top teams. The amount appears to be the right budget required to be successful. It seems that they do a lot right. Which I strongly suspect is the problem in that "Off the Ball" its hosts and invited guests have feeble minds lacking of morale fibre.

[@ivanboesky1520]

marginal gains by marginal doping. That is the Sky marginal gains formula. :-)

[@soundninja99]

Hi again, dr. Bob. At least you didn't embarrass yourself this time.

[@TheSheriff1989]

Patrick Carter US postal using a chef.... I dont think it was the chef to lead to their success buddy

[@tld14]

Not sure Barry Ryan knows anything about cycling. Bernal was able to drop Quintana and Fuglsang because he took it easy in previous days and he is told to ride to exhaustion!

[@jvaraneta]

Witch-hunter!

[@NC-ck5oj]

you really bought that teamsky propoganda

[@ollyole4560]

So Barry explains that Team's Sky dominance is based on their huge budget giving them the ability to employ a team of potential GC winners yet keeps saying he is 'suspicious' of Team Sky's dominance. Maybe he would like to expand on this suspicion because at face value it seems contradictive.

[@dclark142002]

Oliver Higbee, superhuman performances from pedestrian riders. Geraint Thomas is as good as Fausto Coppi and a juiced Lance Armstrong without doping? That's absurd. This is more than just money. Something fishy is going on.

[@tidydan1]

Thomas' time on the Alpe D'Huez was outside the top 100 times, if something was dodgy, it wasn't the time he got on the mountain itself.

[@999DaveUK]

You know little about cycling if you think Thomas' performance was fishy. The total time taken for the Alp de Huez for Thomas was way below other performances. You just have an agenda and are prepared to use any Sky victory to prove a point!

[@7tom1ja]

I am starting to believe you are a paid sky bot; HELLO, no one is buying it

[@astronomenov99]

Cosmo Wood Yes they are. You should say no one from the trolling twitterverse is buying it. They never will. It's simple physics and man management. Sky have a lot of powerful riders. They used their large budget to recruit them. Each one takes their turn at the front. A pro cyclist can put out a set number of watts for a set time. Each Sky rider for example will put out 450 watts for 10 minutes. The climb is 35 minutes long. Sky can ride at that rate for 30 minutes. Anyone attacking must go at 470 watts but they will pay for that if they don't have another rider ahead that they can bridge to. Pro cyclists at 450 watts are going fast enough up a 8% incline that aerodynamics come into play. So if you want to attack you have the extra drag to overcome as well. A well organised Sky train will not react to attacks because they know that the attacking rider will burn too much power and slowly come back. Sky are not the first team to use these tactics. Yes, USPS used the same tactics and many teams before. If Dave Brailsford went to Movistar or Bahrain, I would guarantee that they would be winning the Tour within 2 years. Leadership and management is what makes big budgets work. I do not believe that any pro peleton team is using enough peds to make an impact. There will be some slightly dodgy supplements and TUEs being bent BY ALL TEAMS.

[@SpawnMeister666]

Still waiting for someone to question Tom Doumolin - Pushed Froome all the way in the Giro, right up there with Froome and Thomas in the Tour, yet somehow the Sky boys are dope fiends and he's just an awesome rider who is doing it perfectly legally... Nope. No double standards there from these no marks who are questioning Sky regardless of what anyone else does...

[@ivanboesky1520]

Froome is not an asthmatic, therefore every single time he takes Salbutamol to reduce weight and maintain muscle mass he is doping. He's cheated that way his ENTIRE SKY career. Read his own book, which came out in 2013 and chronicled his life including all the physical ailments he overcame to become a pro cyclist. Not one single word mentions asthma or ever being an asthmatic. NOT ONE WORD! Yet now he claims he has been an asthmatic all his life! He's a liar and a career cheater! Read his own book, and then come back in here and try to claim it is not true moron! :-)

[@MrWesman43]

So because he did not mention in a book that he has exercise induced asthma, he cannot have exercise induced asthma - WOW your stupidity is impressive ;)

[@r3drum3k92]

If you cant understand the booing, heres why everyone boo's Sky except brits ,for dummys (all confirmed, no speculation): - stellar budget; - neutralising every stage (and GT) with cadaver discipline and sovjet school tactics; - unethical use of TUE's and painkillers; - lack of transparency. Need more?? BTW Thomas is very outspoken against TUE's, doesnt use them, and said in the past that if you need them for asthma you are not suited for top sport. So I realy hope he doesnt get stabbed in the back by Froome with his epic (ab)use of salbutamol.

[@r3drum3k92]

I forgot one bullit: - Brailsford is the team manager;

[@ivanboesky1520]

Froome does not have asthma and never has had it. Read his own book, and even in that book describing his life and physical ailments he never once mentions asthma. He has never been able to prove with a non Sky team doctor that he has asthma either. Froome abuses Salbutamol to lose weight and maintain muscle mass to increase his power to weight ratio artificially. He's a doping cheat and every time he uses Salbutamol regardless of the level he is cheating because he is not an asthmatic. That is what people should be focusing on, but Froome and Sky have done a masterful con job of deflecting attention away from the basic fact he does not and never has had asthma.

[@r3drum3k92]

@Bob Gardner Yeah that makes a lot of sense considered what has happenend in the past.

[@soundninja99]

Come on, dr. Bob. Three comments. Do you never get tired of these factless allegations? I know these were all a week ago, but maybe you looked up exercise-induced asthma before posting you fourth.

[@r3drum3k92]

If you win the tdf 5 times would it be too much to ask to have your asthma status and TUE use audited independently? CF himself has the power to stop all the allegations but till now has not once disclosed any meaningful information, quite the opposite can be said. When confronted in interviews he promises to dislose all the information that will prove he is clean later and then after some time this is always rebuked for some or the other reason. Is this the way of a true champion or of a sad rule breaker? You tell me.

[@karlmilton6688]

These two are probably the successors of Walsh and Kimmage i.e. casting aspersions without regard to the problems it has caused especially amoung the French so called fans . SKY ARE WELL funded so what ? What about football , the Manchester and London clubs a are so much better supplied than most of the other teams , that is accepted as part of modern business . Why should cycling be an exception? To go bleating on , like the bitter French about Sky is tiresome and utterly counterproductive , I have long asserted that if Team Sky was full of Frenchmen there would be not one peep from guys across the channel and the Irish sea.

[@TheSheriff1989]

karl milton david Walsh who spent 20 years trying to expose the truth... david Walsh is a hero

[@karlmilton6688]

Clinton Bush If Walsh is your idea of a hero I can only conclude that you set the bar extremely low in your assessment of such. Mr Walsh is, for the most part , a self serving , media obsessed , mean spirited little man , who , incidentally has made a nice pot of cash from his obsession. To use the word Hero in relation to this gentleman is nothing short of an insult to the many REAL hero's in this world .

[@livibam]

You what?

[@jasonshorter9915]

Who is this guy? Has he ever raced a bike?

[@huwsparky175303]

This is pretty cringe worthy in parts.

[@tonystack1622]

Lol Digger

[@skyjockbill]

Such cynical reporting. And nothing new here either, just more unfounded innuendo.

[@NC-ck5oj]

this comment didnt age well at all

[@dclark142002]

The booing isn't for the rider...it's for the team. Any team Sky rider is going to be booed. It's easy for Sky to control the race when they dope their bodies or their equipment. The GC race is over. They will win.

[@soundninja99]

But Bernal got cheered

[@DuderinoDeux]

Thomas looks the strongest but team politics probably means Froome wins it.

[@AshleyTowey]

DuderinoDeux well....

[@DuderinoDeux]

Well! He surprised me and a few others.

[@michaelgould3475]

Absolutely brilliant video from digger but why didn't he use his own voice surely disguises face is enough and surely he knows that Thomas hasn't got a asthma he is the voice of cycling after all

[@nathanburt7999]

These guys have no idea what there talking about

[@ilpostino88]

Nathan Burt thhgdxchv