Now a week or so is a long time in Sports but the reaction to the “surprise” move of Bradley Wiggins from Garmin to Sky recently is only just starting to die down, though like any bonfire there is the risk a stray spark could re-ignite the issue at any moment.
I put “surprise” in quotes for the obvious reason that it was akin to one of those celebrity marriage proposals that has the tabloids speculating over for months then claim the recipient was “gobsmacked” when it came, or words to that effect.
Of course there was the requisite denials from Garmin such as this printed in the Guardian in November: Bradley Wiggins is still our man, say Garmin, denying he has signed for Sky, Which quotes Jonathan Vaughters saying “Brad has a contract until 2010. If L'Equipe has such a great source, they should reveal it!”
It’s a dangerous game is denial. The risk is that nobody really believes you when you claim later that at the time you meant it. It’s dangerous too to claim that something is about to happen and it doesn’t. To some it makes one look arrogant and not a little presumptuous.
So when the news was finally announced on December 10th at a press conference in Central London that Wiggins would be making the move over from Garmin to the newly formed Team Sky the question every journalist’s lips was some variation of “How?” and “How much?”
While it’s not unheard of for a rider to change team in the middle of a contract, you’d be wracking your brains to remember when it was someone as highly ranked as Wiggins. There also isn’t the facility for it to happen. There is no transfer structure there is in Soccer which allows for “buying” and “selling” players mid-season. There isn’t the concept of draft picks as there is in the NFL. There isn’t really much to bargain with, except money. Every rider is a free agent, but while riders will move from team to team contracts are semi-sacred things. Cycling is a lowly paid and precarious sport and you don’t go around annoying bosses by asking to break your contract – you have to have a really special reason for doing it.
When the subject was raised Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford showed an admirable amount of resistance to both the “how” and “how much” questions. For a moment you found yourself in one of the press conferences you get in a Batman or Superman movie when the Chief of Police is asked to reveal his source – short of saying “no comment” Brailsford couldn’t have stonewalled better. His tactic was to refer to the situation between Wiggins and Garmin as akin to a divorce with the deal having to be struck between Wiggins and Garmin with the UCI acting as judge. We couldn’t resist suggesting to Brailsford that effectively made him the “other man”. That was one of us his Christmas card list.
Surely some money must have changed hands we asked. Initially Brailsford could only be pushed to suggest that Jonathan Vaughters was just encouraged to see sense. Pushed a little further Brailsford quote UCI regulations covering the transfer. Let’s give the man his due. How could he possibly tell us if money actually changed hands. It would expose every team to risk and possibly create a whole new situation in cycling. It got to the point when the subject was done and it was more than rude to persist.
Let’s not be naive though. Garmin would not have parted with Wiggins for nothing. Sure any Directeur like Jonathan faced with a long legal wrangle with Team Sky and the prospect of a year finding work for a resentful rider would have seen sense and let him go. Wiggins is no ordinary rider though. Not only is he a race winner, but he is a PR prize and you need to be compensated.
According to various sources and which has been quoted in other publications too the compensation was the equivalent of £2miilion. That’s a fair chunk of Sky’s reported £10million operating budget. Add to that a reported £1miilion a year salary and Wiggins is close to one of the most expensive riders in history. Brailsford of course doesn’t look at this as a cost but as an investment, and one which comes with a different sort of price tag.
First though let’s reflect on the impact of this type of transfer on cycling. Having said that it is not unheard of, there has been a rash of them including Cadel Evans hopping from Silence-Lotto to BMC. Wiggins also isn’t the only rider that Team Sky is looking to break out of his contract. Ben Swift has long been discussed as a target.
While Brailsford may have quoted UCI regulations and operated within them it has not prevented Pat McQuaid of the UCI expressing dismay at the situation an promising to investigate and if necessary legislate accordingly. It may turn out that as cycling grows in stature this sort of thing will become a feature of the landscape. The UCI is not blameless. The Pro Tour structure and the demand that teams be of a certain stature and budget means that teams feel forced to recruit accordingly. As Brailsford says, “the days when you progressed from a Continental Team to Pro Tour Team over a number of years are gone”. What he is saying is that a sponsor like Sky is not going to hang about being satisfied with playing a traditional waiting game – it wants the best and it wants them now. Rupert Murdoch would expect nothing less of any other venture.
What then for Team Sky when it finally hits the road with its riders in their new outfits (due in January) and its shiny new cars and trucks? Cycling is a very intimate sport and despite the trends very traditional too. Team Sky has already raised the ire of many commentators in Europe apparently. Some, in Britain especially, might say that if that involved peeing off a few Frenchmen then Brailsford should be knighted immediately. On the other hand what could Brailsford do differently? He had had to start off as he meant to go on not pussy foot around as an apprentice. The thing that will have surprised many is that this is a British team doing muscling its way into the sport – not some “jumped up brash Yank”.
Some of those whose sensibilities have been offended though will be people Team Sky will have to work with day in day out. If it has put some people’s noses out of joint it will want to put things right as soon as possible. Fortunately Brailsford had the foresight to hire Scott Sunderland, a man who commands respect but is also well liked. Come March all will be forgiven if Team Sky is seen as firm but fair.
Lastly Wiggins. This is his seventh team as a professional. No necessarily difficult to work with he is a nonetheless a bit of a maverick. Vaughters has been quoted as saying “When it came to Bradley I learnt to just let him get on with his own thing.” The move to Sky has been a god send to a wandering soul like Wiggins. British Cycling has supported Wiggins throughout his career. It is where he has friends and those he trusts.
Will he stay at Sky? When you think of an answer think of Wiggins as a combination of Zsa Zsa Gabor (nine times married) and Camilla Parker Bowles. Ms Gabor has been married since 1986 her longest marriage, whilst Mrs Parker Bowles and HRH Prince Charles had to wait for decades for the time to be right. Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs. Wiggins says he has come home and believes he wants to spend the rest of career and beyond with Sky (make that Brailsford). Wiggins has all the ingredients to be happy at last – he’d be a fool to move on, and he knows it.
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