Let’s get this party started
In the frenetic minutes after Tao Geoghegan Hart clinched the Giro d’Italia, doing enough in the time-trial into Milan to take the pink jersey for the first time on the final day, the former Team Sky rider Bernhard Eisel spotted his old boss, Dave Brailsford, in the shadows of the Duomo.
Eisel, now working as a Eurosport presenter, was live on air when he intercepted the Team Ineos Grenadiers principal. ‘We have Dave B here now,’ said Eisel. ‘Would you have a second?’
Brailsford, clearly giddy with the excitement of what he’d just witnessed, gave Eisel a bear hug, ruffled his hair, then invited him to tell a story about Geoghegan Hart’s initiation at Team Sky as a 20-year-old stagiaire in 2015.
Back then Eisel was in his final year with the team and the story involved shoes – Eisel was understandably reluctant to go into the details on live television (‘He put me to bed and took my shoes off,’ was all he would reveal).
‘Winning was the goal and there was a process behind it. But the experience we’ve just had at the Giro, it’s about style and the way you win’
But Brailsford’s reaction spoke volumes about the mood of a man who has been known to celebrate victory at the Tour de France by slipping away from the party for a solitary bike ride up and down the Champs-Elysées. If he
