Team Sky: Sky to end backing of British powerhouse in 2019

BBC sports editor Dan Roan

This marks the beginning of the end of an era of both success and scandal.

Thanks to unmatched levels of financial support from their main backer, Team Sky have come to dominate their sport in recent years.

While they will be missed by their fans, others in the sport will no doubt feel this finally gives other teams a chance to compete and is healthy for cycling. But as well as being arguably the most successful current professional team in British sport, they are also the most controversial.

Sky sources tell me that the decision – taken by chief executive Jeremy Darroch – was part of a natural review of commercial partnerships after the £30bn takeover of the satellite broadcaster by media giant Comcast and not to do with the string of high-profile controversies that so damaged the team’s reputation in recent years.

But it is only a few months since a scathing report by a parliamentary committee concluded that Team Sky had “crossed the ethical line” over their use of medical exemptions for banned drugs.

The team denied this, but the intrigue surrounding a mystery Jiffy bag – a medical delivery to Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2011; the inconsistencies in Sky’s explanations, and the absence of medical records at a team that was known for attention to detail and ‘marginal gains’, were further devastating blows.

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome was cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of his adverse analytical finding for salbutamol, but the saga did further damage to the team’s standing.

On the one hand, the timing is intriguing. Geraint Thomas’ maiden Tour de France win was regarded as a timely PR boost after so much controversy and thoughts will now turn to the riders and staff, all of whom face an uncertain future.

But there is more controversy to come. In February, the man at the very centre of the Jiffy bag scandal – ex-Team Sky chief medic Dr Richard Freeman – has a General Medical Council hearing when he will be asked to explain a mystery delivery of testosterone to the velodrome in 2011.

Maybe Sky had simply had enough of the negative headlines, despite so many wins.