First the usual disclaimer – I’ve never met Shane Sutton, Victoria Pendleton, Jess Varnish or indeed any of the current GB cycling team past or present. (Actually that’s not true, Dame Sarah Storey bless her once cruised effortlessly past me with a lovely cheery ‘hello’ a few years back as I grovelled up a minor Cheshire hill when out training, and she must have been about 5 months pregnant at the time……….) Anyway, I digress. These opinions and random thoughts are as ever products of my own occasionally fertile brain which has digested only what its read in the national press and seen on the news. There’s no insider knowledge or ground breaking scoop here so sorry if you’ve stumbled on this via an internet search engine hoping for some juicy gossip. Mind you, if you have been trawling the interweb for hours in search of such stuff you either need to go out and find better things to do with your particular plane of existence , or possibly you’re a junior staffer in the British Cycling Public Relations Office tasked with reading every sorry thing people have spouted about the last few days just incase anything libellous pops up?

I’ll come straight out with it – I feel sorry for Shane Sutton. There, I’ve said it. Not a popular position or viewpoint at the present moment in time judging by the tone of most of the press coverage and opinions being freely bandied about on the internet. Every day another ex rider or team member seems to pop up to add weight to the ‘Sutton is a bast*$d who ruined my career and life’ side of the scale. Whole sections of the cycling community in this country seem to be taking an almost visceral pleasure in both plunging in and then slowly twisting the knife. Sutton it now seems was at the centre of every wrong, every mistake and every decision in which somebody or some party lost out.

Is this fair however? there is undoubtedly bitterness in a lot of quarters about how the funding has been dished out and how certain sections and disciplines of the sport and their riders have been treated over the years. For a long time Mountain Bikers have complained bitterly about how they have been either ignored or marginalised over the years by British Cycling. Many promising road riders have also complained that the ‘conform or leave’ attitude of the British Cycling talent programme had forced them to make their own way in the sport. Our newest World Champion Lizzie Armistead is a case in point, and before her former  Olympic and World Champion Nicole Cooke has also long been a vocal critic of the much heralded British Cycling hierarchy. It’s not just the women riders either. Dan Martin whose road palmeres are pretty damn impressive was British under 18 Road Champion back in 2004, but because unlike his contemporaries Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas  he showed little interest or aptitude for riding indoors on the track he slipped through the British Cycling net and as a result of feeling unloved by the British system has ridden in Irish colours at the worlds since 2008.

Undoubtably for years the British Cycling programme has been focused predominately on the track. This focus has reaped great rewards, heaps of gold medals, produced national heroes and heroines and sucked up great chunks of public funding. Whats this got to do with the vilification and subsequent resignation of Shane Sutton following the revelations and allegations of Jess Varnish and others? Well there had always been rumours about the culture within the British Cycling programme. There had been some fairly high-profile spats with riders who had been dropped or retired in the past, famously Victoria Pendleton the erstwhile golden girl of British Cycling was less than complimentary about some aspects of her treatment in an at times daming TV documentary which was made shortly after she retired from the sport.

However, as long as the gold medals and world records flowed it didn’t seem to matter greatly. These controversies and allegations never seemed to count for much in the press as long as we could all bask in the reflected glory of the likes of Sir Chris Hoy et al every time the Olympics or the world champs rolled round. So what has changed? how have the wheels seemingly come off so fast and so violently? and is it all Sutton’s fault? Instead of a happy family of elite athletes and staff cheerfully dominating the world with their famous ‘marginal gains’ and endless nutritional spreadsheets, has he in fact been presiding over some sort of Orwellian nightmare in which the poor hapless riders are trapped pedalling endlessly round the velodrome banking while the insufferable Sutton screams insults at them?

The truth I’m sure is somewhere in the middle of all the accusations and denials. Could Sutton’s interpersonal skills use a brush up? Afterall he’s an old-fashioned Aussie who calls a spade a spade and makes few concessions to political correctness. This old skool approach probably worked well when he was part of the holy trinity of himself,  Dave Brailsford and Peter Keen back in the glory days of British Cycling a few short years ago. With the ultimate details man Brailsford in overall command and Peter Keen looking after all aspects of the sometimes fragile riders mental preparations and state of minds, Sutton was free to fulfil the grizzled ex-pro role. A kind of John Wayne-esque figure who like the sardonic veteran NCO’s Wayne portrayed in hundreds of war films was only tough on those under his command because he loved them deep down and was doing his best to toughen them up to withstand the battles ahead.

Poor Sutton seems genuinely hurt and bewildered by some of the accusations and stories appearing in the press. I’m sure he expected some fallout after telling Varnish her Olympic dream was over, but for some of his ex protegé’s like Pendleton to pop up in the press and stick the knife in has obviously surprised him and cut pretty deep.

It seems pretty plain now that there are issues within the British Cycling programme that need addressing and some of the claims especially those regarding discrimination against and the belittling of Paralympic athletes are indefensible if true. There is never any excuse for behaviour and attitudes like that. If Sutton is proved guilty of these charges then I have no sympathy for him at all.

However, if all he is guilty of is not breaking bad news gently enough to one young women then he’s justifiably most probably feeling a bit put upon. What is not in dispute is that Varnish’s results over the last couple of years have not been outstanding. She blames the coaches, the coaches say she reached her full potential some time ago and has since slipped backwards. Who is right? who knows, but was Varnish going to win or challenge for medals in Rio? – probably not based on recent results. That is simply a hard fact. A really hard fact for a young women who has dedicated practically her whole adult life to her chosen sport.

Was she right to lash out in the press straight away with allegations which by their very nature she must have known would undermine her former Coach and therefore destabilise British Cycling in the build up to the Rio games? There’s going to be an inquiry which is all very right and proper. Everyone will hopefully get a full and frank opportunity to put their concerns out there without fear of reprisal, and if the culture within British cycling needs to change hopefully changes will be made. Sutton has already stepped down to try to minimise the impact on the team which tells you something about the man. He may yet be proved to be a sexist and racist dinosaur with the social empathy and graces of a gorilla, but he does care about the team’s success.

I do wonder though……. if the corridors and meeting rooms under the Manchester Velodrome become a shouting free zone where nobody is ever offended and the political correctness police rule supreme and can override any coaches decision if its likely to upset anyone, will the medals still flow? If banter is outlawed because people are scared a comment made in the heat of the moment or even in jest maybe noted down and come back to haunt them years later, will the teams bond together and gel as well? If decisions are made not solely on performance grounds but on whether there could be adverse reaction from the rider concerned will the we still get the best from all our riders?

Jess Varnish and now Shane Sutton will both be watching the cycling at the Rio games from the comfort of their own sofa’s. The fallout from this saga may unfortunately continue to be played out long after the closing ceremony has finished.