The Team Sky manager, Dave Brailsford, outlines his expectations regarding to the British squad as the 2014 season kicks-off in the earnest from their Spanish base in Alcudia. Even though their two consecutive Tour the France titles are an unprecedented case in the history of British cycling, it didn’t reduce his ambitions to elicit further improvement and he expects his team to become even more competitive throughout the whole season’s length in 2014.

The Team Sky riders participated in two training camps held on Baleares, particularly in December and January, ready to terminate their final preparations just before the Challenge Mallorca first race on Sunday. Brailsford seems to be satisfied with the job that already has been done.

“It was a good training camp,” he confirms.

“We tried to create a friendly environment to carry out our preparations properly. Our main goal was to accumulate kilometers and train hard. I think everyone did a great job, especially the coaching staff and the riders themselves. I think it was a successful training camp and well utilized winter-break, outcomes are soon to be discovered.”

This year the British manager expects his riders to be more competitive throughout the whole season, not only during its most important events as it happened in 2013 and resulted with losing the first position in the final UCI team rankings to Movistar.
 

“We have regained our poise and we’re thinking in more comprehensive way about the season to remain competitive in the longer stints instead of reaching peak performances early followed by long periods of lower disposition,” Brailsford explained.

Albeit the impressive results from last two seasons, Brailsford does not experience a feeling of complacency as he is very aware that everyone has to start from the scratch every single year and previous achievements, no matter how spectacular, ale only statistical data.

"There is always a danger ( complacency ). The key is to remember that as we start now, everyone is back at the starting point. No one has an advantage because of what they did last year. Nobody gets 10 miles on the output or something. All are absolutely back to zero. And unless you've done the job and everything necessary, you will suffer. There is no place to hide in this sport, " he says.

"If you haven’t done the work properly, you won’t get away with it. You just cannot be complacent. Otherwise, you will receive a painful awakening. But I think there's enough ambition in the team, and in the young guys that are eager to push really hard. That keeps everyone on their toes," he adds.

The British manager explains, that in order to succeed in the discipline it is necessary to constantly learn from mistakes, overcome obstacles and never settle for what already has been achieved. It’s all about becoming better and better every consecutive year.

“Sport is a continuous improvement. It’s about being better next year than you were the previous one. It’s kinda like being a Formula One car designer claiming it was impossible to create any further improvements, and, in the end, every next time doing so anyway. And that is exactly what we have to do. We have to keep observing, researching and working, trying different solutions. Just that simple.”

Confirming his own words, there are two new important objectives included in the 2014 calendar for Team Sky, particularly the Tour of California and one-day races dedicated to the younger riders.

“Each year, we constantly try to develop the racing program taking into account what our goals are. Certainly California with 21st Century fox is big business. We want to perform well in this race and fly our banners proudly. It is very important, but we have also included a lot of one-day races this year to give some of our youngsters more opportunities to play their own cards in this kind of competition.”