Tour de France 2019: Tean Ineos manager Dave Brailsford admits he considered walking away from cycling

Egan Bernal clinched his first yellow jersey in Paris, becoming the fourth different rider to win the Tour under Brailsford’s management

Dave Brailsford admits he considered walking away from cycling when team sponsor Sky pulled out, but his love for the sport persuaded him to stay and try to win another Tour de France as Team Ineos.

That decision proved fruitful on Sunday when the 22-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal clinched his first yellow jersey in Paris, becoming the fourth different rider to win the Tour under Brailsford’s management, and with it sealing a seventh win in eight years for what is developing into a Sky-Ineos dynasty.

Speaking after Bernal’s victory, while wearing a Colombian national football shirt, Brailsford said: “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 other people to achieve something is a much happier place to be.”

Brailsford has faced intense scrutiny over the past few years as scandals erupted around Team Sky and their riders. The nadir was a parliamentary committee report which concluded the team had crossed an ethical line in their deployment of therapeutic use exemptions.

“You can’t do this job without a thick skin. In sports management, you need to be resilient and decide what’s important to you and what you are prepared to take on board. Sometimes you have to look inside yourself and dig deep – tough times don’t last, but tough people do.

“During the Tour last year, I was angry. I felt like I was in a fight the whole time, I was stewing. Maybe age helps, but 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.”

Bernal is Brailsford’s first non-British rider to win the Tour, the culmination of many years opening the team to a more diverse make-up.

“When I was young and I came to live in France, it was the loneliest period of my life. I had made a commitment to come here and I dared not go back as a failure, even though I was hating it. I was really, really lonely, and I realised I had to learn French and talk to somebody. Very slowly I integrated into the French culture and that experience stuck with me.

“When we started the team, there was a very Anglo-Saxon way about it: You are going to it our way, no debate about it, which is naive when you have Colombians and Spanish in the team. Of course the best way to do it is to understand other people’s culture, other people’s views and make them feel comfortable and help them perform to the best of their ability.

“To support them in that way, we had to invest in Spanish coaches.”

How did Bernal win the Tour? “Overall he proved to be the most consistent climber and he was the best at altitude," said Brailsford. "On one occasion he was so keen to stay on Pinot’s wheel that he made a big effort to catch him and he paid for being a bit too impulsive, but that was probably his youth.

“Ultimately, on the Col de l’Iseran, we had 37 minutes to win the Tour by going at it as hard we could for sustained effort. At that altitude, at full throttle, you are only going to have three or four guys left at the top.”