Arise Sir Dave? Brailsford's influence over British cycling cannot be underestimated The course is also less severe in the mountains than in previous years and particularly well-suited to Wiggins" time-trialling specialism. To narrow the praise on Wiggins would also be misguided. Wiggins" achievements are certainly the most significant but British Cycling's triumph over the past decade has been collective, led by the utterly inspirational Dave Brailsford. There is, quite simply, no more impressive coach or manager in world sport. To have overseen a programme that made our track cycling team the best in the world was one thing but to then so quickly mastermind a dominance of road cycling, with all its variables and deep history in continental Europe, has been staggering. Brailsford obviously has many qualities, from his eye for the small detail, or what he calls "marginal gains" to an ability to appoint and delegate work to his team of experts (anyone would benefit from reading team psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters" book, "The Chimp Paradox" on mind management). Yet what also stands out, just like the best football managers, is Brailsford's blend of this specialist knowledge and obsessive work ethic with his people skills. A read of David Millar's autobiography, Riding Through The Dark, provides perhaps the best example of this. Brailsford happened to be with Millar in Biarritz when the Scottish rider was arrested on suspicion of doping offences. Despite being completely unconnected to the situation and having a zero-tolerance approach to doping, Brailsford stayed with Millar and placed a basic human duty of care at a moment of such trauma above any narrow calculations about how it all might look. The argument about Wiggins and his exact place in British sporting history will go and on. But, in respect of Brailsford, the debate is surely rather more straightforward. His achievements surpass anything that has gone before. In this Olympic year, there could be no more worthy knighthood recipient.