DAVE BRAILSFORD warned “fluffy” pandering to the PC brigade will damage Britain’s hard-won status as a cycling giant.
The Team Sky boss oversaw his fifth Tour de France triumph in six years as Chris Froome won his fourth title on Sunday — and was the key figure behind our stars dominating in the velodrome for the past three Olympics.
Now Brailsford has hit out over claims of a culture of bullying at British Cycling, sparked by the Jess Varnish case.
She complained after being dropped from the world-class performance programme last year.
And an investigation upheld her accusation that ex-technical director Shane Sutton used sexist language towards her.
Brailsford, 53, said: “If we get too fluffy, then we might as well accept we just go for participation rather than winning.
“What we have got to be a little bit careful of is getting a bit too PC about it all. Then all of a sudden the coaches, a bit like a teacher in a classroom, can’t do anything.
“They have to be very careful or somebody will complain and it takes the edge out of the system.
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“We need to recognise that the system we have is world class and we should be doing everything we can to keep that.”
The sport last weekend agreed to governance reforms, which will feature more emphasis on athlete welfare, to ensure its £43million worth of lottery funding continues.
Brailsford added: “You can’t be personal, have bias, or discriminate but a lot of people who look at themselves in the mirror lie about what they see.
“Let’s not go too far in the other direction or we will lose the very essence of what it took to win in the first place.”
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