Daily Mirror - 30.07.2019

BRAILSFORD FORGED LATEST TRIUMPH

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ADULT CHAT LINE

RUGBY LEAGUE FEARS FOR BOSS OF SUPER LEAGUE LEADERS

contract at the end of the season.

But if he goes, it will be at the end of

the year.”

Saints fans have been chanting

“we want you to stay” at matches in

an attempt to convince Holbrook to

sign a new deal. But the chance to

take his first head coach’s job in the

NRL have won him over.

Dave Furner, sacked by Leeds in

May, is set to be Holbrook’s assistant

at Gold Coast.

to have promised Saints that he will

see out the remaining few months of

his contract at the club.

McManus (left) added: “He is

absolutely committed to

winning trophies with us at the

end of the year.

“We gave Justin until the end

of this month to make his mind up,

so we will find out in the next couple

of days. We cannot stop him being

interviewed because he is off

confident the Super League leaders

are strong enough to cope with the

huge loss. “We have not been

sitting idly by,” he said. “We

have got a shortlist of

alternatives and are happy

with our contingency plans.

“Our preference is that Justin

stays, and there is a deal on the

table, but it is his choice. We’ve got a

great young team that is going to

get better.” Holbrook is understood

SAINTS CONFIDENT DEPARTING HOLBROOK WILL SEE OUT SEASON

BY JULIE STOTT

ST HELENS owner and chairman

Eamonn McManus insists Justin

Holbrook’s exit will not derail them.

Holbrook is expected to be

confirmed as the coach of Gold Coast

Titans in Australia today.

Early fears that Holbrook would

quit Saints immediately look to have

been allayed, with the 43-year-old

Aussie likely to leave at the end of

the year instead. But McManus is

GOLD RUSH Holbrook is

set to leave St Helens

Tough times don’t last

...but tough people do

TOUR MASTER HAS BEEN PUT THROUGH THE MILL, FOUGHT BACK AND DELIVERED

A SEVENTH YELLOW JERSEY TO STAKE A CLAIM AS BRITAIN’S BEST-EVER COACH

TOUR DE FRANCE

godfather Sir Dave

Brailsford added an

eighth Yellow Jersey to

his collection when he

swapped his Team Ineos

top for a Colombian

football shirt with a fan.

And as British sport’s greatest

survivor – and most prolific

winner since Sir Alex Ferguson

• celebrated yet another golden
  sunset on the Champs Elysees,
  he grinned: “Tough times don’t
  last, but tough people do.”
  Since his mission statement of
  forming a dream team riding as
  a clean team was splattered with
  unproven allegations involving
  jiffy bags, asthma medication
  and doping innuendo, Brailsford
  has had to ride out more storms
  than a lifeboat.
  But Egan Bernal’s maiden
  Tour de France triumph, which
  passed without a whiff of con-
  troversy, reinforced the Team
  Ineos principal’s reputation as
  one of sport’s great strategists.
  He has now masterminded
  seven of the last eight wins on
  Le Tour with four different
  riders – Bernal, Geraint Thomas,
  Chris Froome ( four times) and
  Sir Bradley Wiggins. After

previous six under Team Sky’s

standard?

“You can’t do this job without

a thick skin,” said Brailsford. “In

sports management, you need

to be resilient and decide what’s

important to you. Sometimes

you have to look inside yourself

and dig deep – tough times don’t

last, but tough people do.

“I didn’t expect Sky to stop

when they did, and when that

happened there was a moment

of reflection where I thought,

‘What am I doing? Where is this

heading?’ It would have been a

natural break, a chance to take

an easy way out and step away

gracefully.

“But then you think, ‘Hang on

a minute’ – life is all about

challenges and I love the sport

too much, so I thought, sod it,

I’m going to carry on.

“Do I feel vindicated? Not

really – I got to the point where

I felt life is for looking forward.

You can look back and be angry

or bitter, but leading a group of

people to achieve something is

a much happier place to be.

“During the Tour last year, I

was angry. I felt I was in a fight

the whole time, I was stewing.

This year I’ve felt a lot calmer. I

don’t feel any less competitive,

but I’ve been a bit more

measured and I’ve stopped

fighting everybody.”

season was a huge undertaking,

but three months later here we

are with another Yellow

Jersey.

“We’ve had

Colombians in the

team pretty much all

the time, from Sergio

Henao to Rigoberto

Uran and Egan, and

I’ve maintained a very

close working

relationship with the

Colombians as a

cycling nation. For

them, this will be

seismic.”

So was this the most

satisfying Grand Tour win

of them all – even if the winning

rider was not British, unlike the

said: “When you’ve won so

many, you wonder if you can

win it again – especially

with the added

challenge, at the end

of last year, when we

were told the team

would not be

continuing under the

Sky banner.

“There were questions

about whether we

would find a new

owner, and whether

the timescale would

allow us to prepare

another challenge to

win it. I resolved to give

it our best shot, and

switching the team from Sky to

Ineos midway through the

presiding over more bullion than

the Bank of England as Team

GB’s head honcho at the Beijing

and London Olympics,

Brailsford’s record is without

parallel among 21st century field

generals.

But as Colombian fans

picketed the Team Ineos bus in

the paddock, and billionaire

owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe dispensed

goodwill among the staff,

Brailsford revealed he came

close to quitting last winter.

When Sky announced their

decade as £30million-a-year title

sponsor was ending, he was

tempted to walk away from a job

where he had survived heavy fire

from grandstanding MPs and

anti-doping hawks. Brailsford

FROM MIKE WALTERS

Cycling correspondent

in Paris

@MikeWaltersMGM

BY MIKE WALTERS

IF Sir Dave Brailsford was hurt by criticism and

insinuations about the authenticity of his

leadership, he shows few signs of it.

Like Sir Alex Ferguson, he almost seems to

thrive on it. The national velodrome was

nicknamed the ‘Medal Factory’ during his 10

years as performance director at British Cycling,

and now he has orchestrated the largest

collection of yellow jerseys outside of Brazil’s

football Selecao.

Brailsford said: “If you look at successful

people in life, they are not the haters. If you

want to be a winner, hating is not the way to

operate. I have had a lot of time to reflect on

things and I don’t bear any grudges. I don’t

respect some people or rate others, but I don’t

hold it against them. I just look forward and try

to be grateful for what I’ve got.

“Some of the most successful managers in

sport feed off the resentment of their success, it

fuels their ambition. But this game teaches you

to be resilient and the more you are challenged,

the more resilient you become.

“It takes me back to my upbringing in a Welsh

slate mining village – they were tough guys,

those miners, and you learn good values from

them that have stood me in good stead.”

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TUESDAY 30.07.2019 DAILY MIRROR^43

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