Dave Brailsford in reported verbal attack on cycling journalist: 'You write s*** about me'
Brailsford allegedly stopped the reporter from taking part in a Team Sky media event on the second rest day of the Tour de France
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Your support makes all the difference.Dave Brailsford reportedly launched a verbal attack on a cycling journalist during the second rest day of the Tour de France at a Team Sky media event.
Barry Ryan of cyclingnews.com was allegedly singled out by the 53-year-old who attempted to stop the reporter in question from attending the event, stating: “You’ve been writing shit about me.”
According to cyclingnews, Team Sky had announced they would be holding a mixed zone for broadcast media on Monday afternoon ahead of Chris Froome's rest-day training ride.
Numerous print and digital media attended the event and cyclingnews was permitted to listen in to three media ‘grabs’ before Brailsford confronted Ryan.
The Team Sky general manager told him that he was not welcome, taking issue with a piece written by the journalist before the Tour, headlined: ‘Strong and stable? Dave Brailsford's year of saying nothing’.
“You're not invited,” Brailsford is reported as saying. “We have invited the people we want to speak to. You've been writing shit about me."
When Ryan asked Brailsford what parts of the piece before the Tour de France he considered inaccurate, Brailsford replied: "I'm not getting into that. It was opinion, you write shit.
“We make ourselves available, we answer all the questions and you write this shit.”
This follows Sky’s decision late last week not to hold a press conference on the first rest day of the Tour as well as reports that Brailsford prevented cyclingnews editor-in-chief Daniel Benson from participating in an interview he gave after the stage to Chambery.
In reference to last week’s Benson-Brailsford encounter, Sky’s head of communications, Ben Wright, insisted that “there’s certainly no attempt on our part not to engage with the media.”
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