Friday 31 October 2014 11:50, UK
British Cycling chief executive Ian Drake has denied claims by International Cycling Union president Brian Cookson that Team Sky have abandoned the development of young British riders.
Cookson was quoted in Cycle Sport magazine as saying the team “isn’t quite staying true to one of the reasons it was formed”.
Cookson added that he felt Adam and Simon Yates, the 22-year-old twins from Bury, should be riding for Team Sky instead of Australian outfit Orica-GreenEdge.
However, Drake insisted Team Sky’s British core remains intact.
He told Cycling Weekly: “In my view, it’s very much a British team. Generally, around a third of the riders each year have been British. The most it has ever had is ten and now there are eight.”
Drake added that British riders racing for foreign teams did not indicate failure on Team Sky’s part.
He added: “If you go back to why we felt we needed a pro team in the first place that linked to the national federation, it’s because we were concerned that we had nurtured all these riders since they were teenagers and then we told them to go into a murky world.
“We wanted to complete that performance pathway so that they could graduate into what we hoped would be a safe environment.
“I think Team Sky has been instrumental in creating a safer environment across teams, and with the talent path we have in place, we are never going to have all those riders in the same team. There are more British riders with more opportunities, which shows you the state in which the sport is in."
