Well some things take a bit of believing but the fact that Russell Downing is out on his ear is beyond me. For two years he has pulled his tripe out for the greater glory of the Sky behemoth and the thanks he gets is his P45 . He had a contract for one year which was renewed at the start of 2011 but ironically if it hadn’t been he would have been in a better position. Thats because the points he scored from 2010 would have made him an attractive proposition for most teams. This season the results have been sacrificed for the teams greater glory meaning fewer points and no interest from other teams.

All i can say is that Sky must be mad. Just try to think of a harder working pro (Thomas Voeckler maybe). Just try to think of another pro who is so grateful for the opportunity that he rides every day like his life depends on it. And with respect to Russ i am guessing that his salary is only a fraction of a number of his team mates. So whilst Sky have renewed the contracts of Michael Barry and Christian Knees our Russ is scrambling around for crumbs. Makes my blood boil

You can come out now Russ. Brailsfords gone looking for some more foreigners to sign