Brian Smith has talked about his surprise departure from Dimension Data, telling Cyclingnews that the decision to leave was mutual and that he expects team owner Douglas Ryder to take over the vacated role of General Manager.
Smith was released from team duties after a decision was made last week, although he will carry on until the end of April as part of a handover period.
“It was a mutual break but I think that Douglas will step in and run the team,” he told Cyclingnews twenty-four hours after the news was released to the media.
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Smith joined the team in 2014 as the then interim-manager. He helped sign a string of WorldTour level riders including Mark Cavendish, and oversaw the team’s first Tour de France stage win in 2015 courtesy of Steve Cummings. However with the team moving into the WorldTour ranks this season Smith’s role altered and instead of spending more time ‘at the coalface’ he was finding himself in more of an administrative role. With the team growing in the last twelve months, hiring more staff, and moving their service course, Smith felt that his time at the team was coming to an end, especially with Ryder able to devote more hands-on time.
“I came on as interim and then became general manager last year. I think that I did well when I was at the coalface and dealing with the riders but I was doing a lot more admin and logistics this year and that’s probably not where I wanted to be. It’s mutual though and I’ve got a lot of friends in the team. You have to remember that I hired a lot of the staff and riders. It’s hard to step away,” he said.
“The boxes have been ticked and with being in the WorldTour my job changed a little bit and it took some time away from other things. It came to the point where we’ve separated but I’ll continue to help the team where I can as I have a lot of friends there. The last thing I’ll do is cause any problems.”
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