Chris Froome backs Dave Brailsford’s ‘marginal gains’ concept to benefit Manchester United

SINGAPORE – Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome knows what it takes to turn a team into a winning operation after witnessing it first-hand while working with Dave Brailsford, who is credited with turning Britain into a world cycling power in the early-2000s.

The former head of British cycling outfit Team Sky, later rebranded as Ineos Grenadiers, also masterminded Tour de France overall titles for Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Froome between 2012 and 2018.

With Brailsford now holding a key role in football operations at English Premier League football club Manchester United, Froome is confident that his compatriot can help bring success to Old Trafford.

Brailsford is the head of sport for the Ineos group, owned by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who in February made a 25 per cent minority investment in United worth about US$1.25 billion (S$1.66 billion).

Asked if Brailsford can help change United’s fortunes, Froome said on Nov 9: “Certainly. I think if he applies a lot of the same mindset and management that he did at Team Sky, I can definitely see him making some big changes on the football side of things.

“I really learnt a lot from him. I think his leadership skills and his ability to really get the best out of a group working together was phenomenal. So it’d be interesting to see what he’s able to do, and how much influence he has on the football side.”

“If I know Dave Brailsford well enough, I know he can really bring a team together,” added Froome, 39, who will be among a star-studded cast at the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium on Nov 10.

Brailsford and Froome worked together at Team Sky from 2010 to 2020 and, with Brailsford as team principal, the cyclist won four Tour de France titles in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Froome left the team at the end of the 2020 season to join Israel Start-Up Nation (now Israel-Premier Tech) while Brailsford resigned from his cycling role in January 2024.

Before his stint with the Ineos cycling team, the 60-year-old had made his name as British Cycling’s performance director and enjoyed 11 highly successful years before his resignation in 2014.

There, his “marginal gains” mantra helped turn British cyclists into serial winners during an unprecedented period of domination in the sport, with eight gold medals at the Beijing and London Olympics.

Based on the Japanese principle of kaizen, or continuous improvement, Brailsford’s “marginal gains” philosophy was that if athletes and their teams upgrade all the little things they do by 1 per cent, the overall gain will be game-changing.

Some cyclists like Wiggins have rubbished its impact, but Froome believes that this approach saw meticulous attention to detail in sleep, nutrition, training and recovery, and eventually brought success.

Froome detailed how Team Sky would bring the same mattress to every hotel stop, ensuring riders got consistent, high-quality sleep, with rooms blacked out to maximise rest.

Over three weeks, these measures could mean the difference of “15 hours more sleep and recovery” than competitors, he said.

Froome added: “I don’t know enough about football, to be honest, to really say if that’s something that would move the needle in football.

“But in cycling, I know it certainly did, and it was extremely powerful for us.”

With United, who will welcome new manager Ruben Amorim on Nov 11, in the bottom half of the league, Brailsford’s touch may just be the tonic they need to revive their fortunes.