The pressure on Dave Brailsford "remains intense after Chris Froome declined the opportunity to endorse the credibility of the embattled Team Sky principal," according to John Westerby of the LONDON TIMES. As he continues preparations for a new season, with his team under a "cloud of controversy," Froome fielded questions in Monaco and "sought to put distance between himself and the storm that has engulfed Team Sky in recent months," leading to a continuing UK Anti-Doping investigation and the questioning of Brailsford by a parliamentary committee. Asked whether Brailsford, who has admitted being "stupid" in his handling of the affair, still had the same credibility on Sky's anti-doping stance, Froome said, "That's not really for me to say. I'd like to think when I get there and say, 'These are yellow jerseys that are going to stand the test of time,' I'm asking people to believe in that." The three-time Tour de France winner made "painstaking" attempts to separate himself from the crisis that has enveloped the team management, emphasizing that "his commitment to clean cycling remains strong" (LONDON TIMES, 1/7). In London, Tom Cary reported pressure on Brailsford "ratcheted up still further" with the outgoing chair of UK Anti-Doping, David Kenworthy, warning that his organization "will not give up" until it has found out what was in the package flown out to Bradley Wiggins at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné. In a "dramatic intervention in the long-running saga," Kenworthy said that the evidence given to a parliamentary select committee last month by Brailsford and other senior cycling chiefs was "far from convincing," describing it as "extraordinary" and "very disappointing." Kenworthy, who has been chair of UKAD since its establishment in '09, said that the testimony given to MPs by Brailsford, his former coach Shane Sutton and British Cycling President Bob Howden, was "very disappointing" -- in particular, he said, "the inability of anyone to recall exactly what was in the package" (TELEGRAPH, 1/7).
