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Private Notes
Behind the scenes with the riders and staff of Team Sky, Britain's leading professional cycling squad, as they embark on a bid to secure victory in the 2012 Tour de France. In the first episode, new recruit and reigning world road race champion Mark Cavendish joins up with the team in January at a training camp in Majorca. However, his introduction does not go as smoothly as hoped - leaving boss Dave Brailsford searching for a way to mould the new line-up into a cohesive unit.
Dave Brailsford offers an insight into the scientific and psychological methods Team Sky employs to manage the health and performance of its riders, as they prepare to compete in the Tour de Romandie and Criterium de Dauphine. He also explains why it is fundamentally important that his squad shows it is possible to succeed in cycling without the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
The work of Team Sky's `domestiques' - riders who sacrifice their own chances of victory to help their unit leaders by shielding them from opponents, creating slipstreams and setting the tempo of the race by riding at the front of the peloton or launching attacking moves. The progamme follows their work at the Paris-Roubaix race, on a route notorious for its bruising stretches of cobbled roads.
The Tour de France, the world's most prestigious professional cycling race, gets under way, and the members of Team Sky work together to set up Bradley Wiggins's bid for victory. The programme explores the role each individual rider plays in implementing the team's tactics, including mountain specialist Richie Porte, domestique Christian Knees and sprinter Mark Cavendish
The series ends by looking back at the achievements of British cyclists in 2012, including Bradley Wiggins's victory at the Tour de France and the track team's triumphs in the Olympic velodrome. It examines the legacy of champions such as Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy and considers the potential of riders including Chris Froome and Laura Trott, and asks if British cycling can avoid becoming a victim of its own success. Last in the series.
