the end of the Era of the Sky came like a bolt from the blue. Sir Dave Brailsford, the powerful head of the largest Cycling Power in the world, is supposed to have fallen from the clouds, as to him, the main donors, announced the exit to the end of the year 2019. The top stars Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas got the message a little later in the training camp in Mallorca cold: The Team Sky no longer will there be in twelve months in this Form. “Sky will continue to pull, but the Team is open to the future and the cooperation with a new Partner,” said Brailsford, as he made the break early Wednesday morning to the public. The 54-Year-old is combative. The Sky’s withdrawal will not mean the end for his life’s work, which focuses on the six Tour victories are within seven years by Bradley Wiggins(2012), Froome (2013, 2015, 2017) and Thomas (2018).

For 2019 will “change nothing”: “We are not done yet. Before us is another exciting year,“ said Brailsford. From the driver’s side public reactions came. Even the commonly communicative Froome tweeted only the official Team communication. -Sponsor-Sky-in-law in a first opinion about the reasons of the withdrawal. “After more than a decade of commitment, I could not be prouder of what we have achieved. But by the end of 2019 is the right time to open a new Chapter in the history of the Sky,“ said Jeremy Darroch, the Boss of the Sky Group, whose turnover amounted to 2017 15.2 billion euros. The Cycling expenses of the media Multinationals are Peanuts, purely financial withdrawal-reasons unlikely.

With all the shade were above the Era of Sky. Brailsford and his associates have a reputation, in the success, always strive to operate at least at the border of the Legal. A long history of Doping allegations accompanied the team. Especially the ultimately positive Test Froomes follow – on to an increased concentration of Asthma Using Salbutamol in the autumn of 2017, the most successful Team made most also to the unpopular. In the Tour of 2018 Froome and Sky in a phased manner was sheer hatred. Not exactly the desired state for a Sponsor. It goes after 2010, with the Team now, seems questionable. Sky, as the largest donor to the Cycling story is unique – more than 200 million euros, the group will have invested up to the end of the Contract in his rolling toys. Brailsfords team operates in a League of its own.