2015 Team Sky season
| Team Sky | |
|---|---|
| 2015 season | |
Salvatore Puccio on time trial stage Tour of Slovenia 2015
|
|
| UCI code | SKY |
| Status | UCI ProTeam |
| Manager | Dave Brailsford |
| Main sponsor(s) | Sky |
| Based |
National Cycling Centre Manchester England |
| Bicycles | Pinarello |
| Groupset | Shimano |
| Season victories | |
| One-day races | 3 |
| Stage race overall | 7 |
| Stage race stages | 28 |
| Grand Tours | 1 |
| World Championships | 1 |
| National Championships | 3 |
The 2015 season for Team Sky began in January at the Tour Down Under.
As a UCI WorldTeam, they were automatically invited and obliged to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
On 8 January, Richie Porte scored the team's first victory of the season by winning the Australian National Time Trial championships with a margin of eight seconds and went on to record the team's first stage win at the Tour Down Under. Elia Viviani scored his first win for the team, taking sprint victory on stage two of the Dubai Tour.
In August, the team signed Alex Peters and Tao Geoghegan Hart as stagiares for the remainder of the season, with the former also signing for two years.
The team entered the 2015 Giro d'Italia with Porte installed as team leader in the hope that he would continue his good run in stage races and claim the Maglia Rosa. In order to do this and in the team's quest for 'marginal gains' Porte slept in a motorhome which followed the race, rather than hotels like the rest of the team. After limiting the time loss in the stage 1 team time trial Elia Viviani secured the first win for the team in a Grand Tour since the 2013 Vuelta a España on stage 2, also taking over the Maglia rossa. After enjoying a successful first week Porte entered the second week of racing in third position overall, however on stage 10 an untimely puncture (outside of the 3 km ruling) caused him to lose 47 seconds to overall race leader, Alberto Contador. Porte was left isolated due to the puncture and accepted a wheel swap with Orica–Scott and close friend Simon Clarke, contravening UCI rule 12.1.040, which prohibits "non-regulation assistance to a rider from another team". Porte and Clarke were subsequently docked two minutes each and faced a 200 Swiss Franc fine. This resulted in Porte dropping down to 12th on the general classification, three minutes and nine seconds behind Contador. The implementation of the penalty caused outcry on social media; David Millar praised the sportsmanship shown between the two riders as well as Jonathan Vaughters, Chris Horner, Chris Boardman and Tom Domoulin. Team Principal, Dave Brailsford criticised the decision, saying that the "spirit of the law" had not been recognised and that there was a lack of common sense. Giro d'Italia race director Mauro Vegni claimed the rule had to be enforced whilst UCI President Brian Cookson agreed that it was the correct decision. Porte then lost further time on the uphill finish at Monte Berico on stage 12 and a further two minutes on stage 13 after being caught behind a crash, leaving him in 17th spot, five minutes and five seconds behind new overall leader, Fabio Aru. Stage 14 saw the riders tackle the 59.4 km time trial from Treviso to Valdobbiadene, where Vasil Kiryienka claimed the stage win, whilst Porte conceded a further four minutes and six seconds to Contador, leaving him in 17th position, eight minutes and 52 seconds behind the race leader. On the next stage Porte lost a further 27 minutes and abandoned on the second rest day, team leadership being handed over to Leopold König. König would finish the Giro in sixth position, over ten minutes behind victor, Alberto Contador.
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