Early career Brailsford spent some of his early career working as an export sales manager at
Planet X Bikes. He was first employed by British Cycling as a consultant in 1998, after
Lottery funding began the previous year. Brailsford became programmes director before becoming performance director in 2003 following the departure of
Peter Keen. As well as looking at traditional components of success such as physical fitness and tactics, it also entailed a more holistic strategy, embracing technological developments, athlete psychology, and everyday life: Peaking in the mid-2010s at the height of Brailsford's reputation, 'marginal gains' philosophy was discussed beyond cycling in the UK mainstream media. Brailsford's '1% Factor' was also discussed in
business circles in the UK and internationally. In UK
education policy, the
Social Mobility Commission argued in 2014 that improvements in the academic performance of disadvantaged students in British schools could be compared to "the success of [the] British cycling team: the aggregation of marginal gains". Writing on the
2016 EU referendum, the political commentator
Tim Shipman cited "the philosophy of the Team Sky cycling team" in making the argument that "tiny improvements" made by the
Remain campaign could have changed the referendum's result. Tim Lewis writing in
The Guardian claims the idea of marginal gains has become "tarnished" perhaps because the concept is so widely promoted, and partly because its benefits may have been overstated, while Wiggins claims the concept is a "load of rubbish".
Great Britain cycling team At the
2004 Olympic Games Great Britain won two cycling gold medals, their best performance since 1908. Under Brailsford's leadership, the cycling team continued to improve, winning multiple
world championships in
road,
track,
BMX and
mountain bike racing. Great Britain led the cycling medal table at the
2008 and
2012 Olympic Games, winning eight golds at both, while British cyclists won 59 World Championships across different disciplines from 2003 to 2013. In reference to the success, Brailsford noted: "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together."
Team Sky/Team Ineos In 2010, Brailsford also became the manager of the new British-based professional team, . In this role he oversaw Bradley Wiggins',
Chris Froome's and
Geraint Thomas' victories in the
2012,
2013,
2015,
2016,
2017 and
2018 Tour de France. In April 2014, Brailsford resigned as performance director at British Cycling to concentrate on his Team Sky responsibilities. In December 2021, Brailsford was appointed Director of Sport at Ineos, overseeing a growing range of teams and disciplines sponsored by the group, including French football club
Nice. Doping controversy In March 2018 the
Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published the report
Combatting Doping in Sport. Chapter 2 of the report, "British Cycling and Team Sky", focused on Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) gained by both organisations for the use of drugs on the
WADA Prohibited List, citing the defence used by Wiggins and
Shane Sutton that TUEs were used to "find gains" and put oneself "back on a level playing field" with rivals. The report alleged in particular that the drug
triamcinolone had been "used to prepare"
Bradley Wiggins "and possibly other riders supporting him" for the 2012 Tour de France, "not to treat medical need, but to improve his
power to weight ratio ahead of the race". It concluded that Team Sky had crossed an "ethical line" by exploiting this loophole "to enhance the performance of riders". Following the publication of the report, Brailsford was defended by
Chris Froome. ==Honours==