78
(^) Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020
By Riath al-SamaRRai
and J onathan mcEvoy
London Marathon under threat as virus spreads
LONDON MARATHON bosses are holding
crisis talks amid growing fears that
next month’s race will be cancelled
because of coronavirus.
The number diagnosed with the virus in
the UK increased to 51 yesterday — and
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has
refused to rule out shelving the
marathon. As one of the largest
sporting events in the world, involving
around 45,000 runners and up to a
million spectators on the capital’s
streets, the outbreak risks associated
with the race on April 26 are being
discussed by organisers.
While no timeframe has been given on
a final decision, they cited advice from
the government that all mass events
are currently being instructed to
proceed as normal.
A statement to Sportsmail from Hugh
Brasher, the London Marathon event
director, read: ‘We are monitoring
closely the developments relating to
the spread of COVID-19 and noting the
updates and advice given by the UK
Government, World Health
Organisation and UK public bodies.’
It emerged yesterday that this
summer’s Tokyo Olympics could also be
postponed in response to the global
crisis. In the first official recognition
that the Games may be moved from
their July 24-August 9 slot, Japanese
Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto said
his country’s contract with the
International Olympic Committee
meant they had the whole of 2020 in
which to stage them. Hashimoto said:
‘This could be taken to mean the Games
being postponed until later this year.’
The IOC executive board met in
Lausanne yesterday and moved to ease
concerns, despite the spread of
coronavirus from China to more than
60 countries at a cost of more than
3,000 lives so far. An IOC statement
read: ‘The IOC encourages all athletes
to continue to prepare for the
Olympic Games.’
Meanwhile in Formula One, Italy-based
Ferrari fans will be kept out of Bahrain
and Vietnam for races there as a result
of coronavirus-based travelling
restrictions imposed yesterday.
However, F1 bosses remain adamant
those two races will go ahead and are
working with authorities in both
countries to expedite team personnel
— rather than supporters — through
the airports on arrival.
As it stands, only the Chinese Grand Prix
— scheduled for April 19 — has been
postponed.
The first race in Melbourne is set to go
ahead as planned a week on Sunday.
CORONAVIRUS CHAOS
t
HE former Great
Britain rider now
m a s t e r m i n d i n g
D e n m a r k ’ s t e a m
says it is ‘laughable’
f o r B r i t i s h C y c l i n g t o
blame a brain drain for
their decline.
Dan Bigham has hit back after
British Cycling performance
director Stephen Park claimed
one of the reasons his squad are
no longer dominant is because
Brits who ‘acquired knowledge’
on the national programme have
taken that expertise to other
countries.
Bigham, who rode at the 2018
Track Cycling World Champion-
ships and is now a performance
engineer for Denmark, suggests
British Cycling are struggling
because of ‘complacency’ and
‘flaws in their system’.
And he revealed that Park asked
him to share his secrets 12 months
ago — without offering to pay for
the Derby-based rider’s intellec-
tual property (IP).
GB won only four medals at last
week’s Track Cycling World
Championships, which led to
Park warning we should ‘temper
our expectations’ ahead of this
summer’s Olympics in Tokyo.
He added of GB’s rivals: ‘A lot of
them have got Brits involved,
who have acquired knowledge
from their time at British Cycling
a n d g o n e o n t o t r a d e t h a t
effectively.’
Bigham was one of the brains
behind the world record Denmark
set last week in the men’s team
pursuit, an event GB have won at
the last three Olympics.
Responding to Park’s com-
ments, he told Sportsmail: ‘It’s
laughable. I think they are look-
ing in the wrong place.
‘It’s funny for them to be
claiming that suddenly their IP
going elsewhere is why they are
not performing. I think there are
other things at play.
‘Their downfall is not because of
the work that we are doing, it’s
because of flaws in their system
that they need to address. But
it’s not in my interest to point out
a million different things that I
think they could do differently or
better — my job is to make sure
we beat them.’
The medal table in Berlin was
topped by the Netherlands, who
beat GB to gold in the men’s
team sprint and were coached
by Brit Mehdi Kordi. He worked
previously with Britain’s para-
cycling squad.
Simon Jones is Cycling Austral-
ia’s performance director, having
been British Cycling’s head coach
until 2007, and 2008 British
Olympic silver medallist Ross
Edgar is Australia’s sprint coach.
GB have the biggest cycling
budget of any Olympic nation
and topped the medal table in
the sport at the last three Games.
Yet Bigham said: ‘They have
probably been a bit complacent
and not tried new things.
‘Having had more in hand,
maybe they have not pressed so
hard on physiology because they
know they will find 10-15 per cent
improvement on technology.
‘Maybe they’ve rested on their
laurels and now they are on the
back foot and it’s probably too
little, too late.
‘It’s not my place to say where I
think they are spending money
wrong, but I’ve heard some funny
stories about how they’ve spent
it. If they don’t do well in Tokyo,
they are going to have some ques-
tions to answer.’
B i g h a m h a s a M a s t e r s i n
engineering and was an aerody-
namicist for Mercedes in Formula
One before focusing on cycling.
He says he was deliberately ‘left
i n t h e ‘d a r k ’ a b o u t B r i t i s h
Cycling’s data during his time
riding with the team in 2018.
‘When I was there trialling, I
never had any access to their IP,’
he said. ‘They were quite vocal
about why, given that my job out-
side of riding is effectively selling
the knowledge that I own to
cycling teams. So I’ve definitely
not stolen anything.’
Bigham has previously revealed
frustrations at British Cycling for
ignoring performances of British
riders on his trade team, who
have regularly beaten the national
team at World Cup events.
That is why he met Park last
year and British Cycling’s then
head of performance support
Paul Barratt, who has since joined
Team Ineos. Bigham added: ‘It
was a weird meeting to say the
least. The intention was around
how the teams can crossover and
they kind of said they would be
interested in putting something
in place.
‘But they said they would also
like me to do a whole once-over of
how they do things because they
said they develop blind spots.’
T EA M IN E O S s p o r t i n g
director Nicolas Portal has
died at the age of 40. The former
professional cyclist was a part of
Chris Froome’s four Tour de
France wins from 2013 to 2017.
A statement from Ineos — for-
merly Team Sky — said the
Frenchman died at home in
Andorra yesterday. Froome said
on Twitter: ‘My thoughts are with
Nico’s wife and children tonight.
He was the kindest, happiest guy
I knew and always lived life to the
fullest. Rest In Peace Nico.’
EXClUSivE
by D aviD
CovERDalE
CYCLING
GB CyClinG’S
EXCUSES aRE
laUGhaBlE
Former Britain star — now with rivals Denmark —
blames his old team’s slump on complacency
No laughing
matter: Bigham
(above) says
Park (top) is
‘looking in the
wrong place’
to explain GB’s
decline reX/pa