Team Sky: Why now and what now? The big questions facing cycling team

Unprecedented elite cycling success, an upsurge in popularity for the sport, but also, as detailed below, considerable controversy.

Indeed, in the post-London 2012 era, it is hard to think of another British sporting institution that has thrown up so many big stories, both positive and negative, for journalists to cover.

Thanks to unmatched levels of financial support from their main backer, Team Sky have come to dominate their sport in recent years.

It is hard to overstate the extent to which British fortunes in professional cycling have been transformed. Until six years ago, no British rider had won any of the three Grand Tours. When the idea of a British winner of the Tour de France was first mooted by Sir Dave Brailsford in 2009,, external he was laughed at.

Now no-one is laughing. Sky have won all three of the Grand Tours, including six of the last seven editions of the Tour. Sir Bradley Wiggins’ historic triumph in 2012 provided the perfect build-up to the London Games. Team Sky made household names of cyclists in a way British sport had never seen before.

Before events called it into question, the team’s so-called ‘marginal gains’ philosophy became emblematic of a meticulous and scientific approach to sports performance and preparation that – alongside National Lottery funding – was credited with turning the country into an Olympic and Paralympic superpower.

That success bred a mixture of admiration, jealousy and suspicion abroad, and a surge in popularity and participation in the UK. There is no doubt that it helped Britain to become a cycling nation, and that this legacy should last whatever now happens to the team.

Next year Yorkshire will host the Road World Championships. Unprecedented numbers of fans flock to watch the Tour de Yorkshire and Tour of Britain each year. UK Sport has ambitions to host the starts of all three Grand Tours in the next few years. Sky also points to the success of initiatives like Sky Ride in getting 1.7 million people active and on to bikes.

This is arguably the legacy that Sky can most be proud of, and which will pass the test of time.

Even cycling’s governing body, the UCI – whose president David Lappartient has clashed with Brailsford in recent times – congratulated the team for its support of cycling, and for having “contributed to the development of the sport”.

However, while the team will be missed by its fans, many of whom believe that Sky only ever took advantage of the rules to give themselves a competitive edge, others may feel this news will give other teams a chance to compete, and could actually prove healthy for cycling after such domination.

It will be interesting to see what the end of Sky’s sponsorship does for competitiveness in the sport, and for fan engagement.

And as well as being arguably the most successful current professional team in British sport, Sky are also among the most controversial and divisive.