Johan Bruyneel
Encyclopedia
Johan Bruyneel is a former road bicycle racer in professional cycling and a directeur sportif
for UCI ProTour
team . Retiring from racing in 1998, he became director of (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour
cycling team
. He produced eight Tour de France wins with US Postal/Discovery, with Lance Armstrong
from 1999–2005 and Alberto Contador in 2007. Following the 2007 season, the team disbanded and Bruyneel became the director of the team beginning in 2008, and achieved victories in each of cycling's Grand Tours
with Contador with Astana.
, the 1991 Rund um den Henninger Turm, the 1992 Grand Prix des Nations
and Coppa Placci
, and stage 6 (Evreux
> Amiens
) and finishing 7th at the 1993 Tour de France
. His stage win set the record for fastest stage at 49.417 km/h, since then only broken by two cyclists.
His greatest successes as a pro cyclist came in 1995. At the 1995 Tour de France
, he won stage 7, which began in Charleroi
and ended in Liège, Belgium, and took the yellow jersey
in his home country. Bruyneel launched an escape and was joined by eventual winner Miguel Indurain
. The Spaniard took the lead and rode the stage as a time-trial to gain time on his main rivals, with Bruyneel latched onto his wheel, barely able to follow the tempo. He then beat Indurain in the end sprint to win the stage. Bruyneel admitted he felt somewhat uneasy about how he had won. However, the win into Liège afforded him a chance meeting with the King of Belgium during the prize presentations. That same year, Bruyneel achieved his only podium finish in a Grand Tour when he finished 3rd at the 1995 Vuelta a España
and won the Aalst criterium.
In the 1996 Tour de France
, he missed a curve when descending a hill in stage 7 (Chambéry
> Les Arcs
), and disappeared into a ravine. The frightening moment was captured by a camera team that was driving right behind the group of descenders. After long minutes of uncertainty, Bruyneel could be seen climbing out of the ravine, and getting back onto his bike to continue the stage.
, but whose team, in Armstrong's words, was "the Bad News Bears, a mismatch of bikes, cars, clothing, equipment," with a total budget of only $3 million. Bruyneel's team promptly won eight of the next nine editions of the Tour de France
, with Armstrong winning seven straight prior to his retirement in 2005 and then Alberto Contador
winning in 2007 with Levi Leipheimer
finishing third. However, Discovery Channel, which had taken over as the sponsor of the team in 2005, decided to withdraw in 2007 in the wake of the sport's extensive doping scandals, and the team disbanded. At that point, Bruyneel's teams had won ten Grand Tour championships in nine years (8 Tours de France, 1 Giro d'Italia (Savoldelli, 2005) and 1 Vuelta a Espana (Heras, 2003)).
At the time, Bruyneel announced his retirement and his plans to write a book. Bruyneel's book, We Might As Well Win, was published by Houghton Mifflin on 4 June 2008. Also, on 29 May 2008, Bruyneel joined the Board of Directors of World Bicycle Relief
. But his retirement did not materialize.
In October 2007, after negotiations with the Kazakh government, Bruyneel was signed to take over control of the embattled team, which had been kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France
for doping violations and was in shambles over its doping connections. He brought Discovery's Contador and Leipheimer with him for the 2008 season. Although the team was banned from the Tour de France for its past doping history, Contador won both the 2008 Giro d'Italia
and the 2008 Vuelta a España
, making Contador the youngest rider to win all three Grand Tour championships. Additionally, Leipheimer finished second at the Vuelta.
For the 2009 season, Armstrong returned from retirement, joining Contador and Leipheimer at Astana. Contador's victory in the Tour de France and Armstrong's third place meant that Bruyneel had won four of the last six Grand Tours that his teams entered, and thirteen Grand Tour championships in eleven years. Armstrong will form his own team, Team RadioShack
, for 2010, with sponsorship from Radio Shack
and Trek Bicycle Corporation
. Bruyneel confirmed his departure from Astana at the end of the 2009 season on 21 July 2009.
According to Bruyneel's personal web site, he is fluent in six languages (Dutch, English, Spanish, French, Italian and German).
As of May 2010 he was under investigation by the Belgian cycling federation, after being accused by Floyd Landis
of involvement in systematic doping whilst director sportif of Lance Armstrong's US Postal team.
Directeur sportif
A directeur sportif is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event...
for UCI ProTour
UCI ProTour
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI . Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series...
team . Retiring from racing in 1998, he became director of (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour
UCI ProTour
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI . Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series...
cycling team
Cycling team
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel...
. He produced eight Tour de France wins with US Postal/Discovery, with Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...
from 1999–2005 and Alberto Contador in 2007. Following the 2007 season, the team disbanded and Bruyneel became the director of the team beginning in 2008, and achieved victories in each of cycling's Grand Tours
Grand Tour (cycling)
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races:* Tour de France – Tour of France , held in July* Giro d'Italia – Tour of Italy , held in May...
with Contador with Astana.
Professional cyclist
Bruyneel was a successful professional cyclist. Early wins included the 1990 Tour de l'AvenirTour de l'Avenir
Tour de l'Avenir is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents. Riders competed in national teams...
, the 1991 Rund um den Henninger Turm, the 1992 Grand Prix des Nations
Grand Prix des Nations
The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial for professional racing cyclists. Held annually in France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race. The race was the idea of a Parisian newspaper editor...
and Coppa Placci
Coppa Placci
The Coppa Placci is a semi classic European bicycle race held between Imola, Italy and San Marino. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour....
, and stage 6 (Evreux
Évreux
Évreux is a commune in the Eure department, of which it is the capital, in Haute Normandie in northern France.-History:In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named Mediolanum Aulercorum, "the central town of the Aulerci", the Gallic tribe then inhabiting the area...
> Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
) and finishing 7th at the 1993 Tour de France
1993 Tour de France
The 1993 Tour de France was the 80th Tour de France, taking place July 3 to July 25, 1993. It consisted of 20 stages, over 3714.3 km, ridden at an average speed of 38.709 km/h....
. His stage win set the record for fastest stage at 49.417 km/h, since then only broken by two cyclists.
His greatest successes as a pro cyclist came in 1995. At the 1995 Tour de France
1995 Tour de France
The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place July 1 to July 23, 1995. It was Miguel Indurain's fifth and final victory in the Tour. On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet d'Aspet....
, he won stage 7, which began in Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
and ended in Liège, Belgium, and took the yellow jersey
Yellow jersey
The general classification in the Tour de France is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey .-History:...
in his home country. Bruyneel launched an escape and was joined by eventual winner Miguel Indurain
Miguel Indurain
Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. He won five consecutive Tour de Frances from 1991 and 1995, the first to do so, and the fourth athlete to win five times. He won the Giro d'Italia twice, becoming one of only seven people in history to achieve the Giro Tour...
. The Spaniard took the lead and rode the stage as a time-trial to gain time on his main rivals, with Bruyneel latched onto his wheel, barely able to follow the tempo. He then beat Indurain in the end sprint to win the stage. Bruyneel admitted he felt somewhat uneasy about how he had won. However, the win into Liège afforded him a chance meeting with the King of Belgium during the prize presentations. That same year, Bruyneel achieved his only podium finish in a Grand Tour when he finished 3rd at the 1995 Vuelta a España
1995 Vuelta a España
The 50th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 2 to September 24, 1995. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of 3750 km, and was won by Laurent Jalabert of the ONCE cycling team...
and won the Aalst criterium.
In the 1996 Tour de France
1996 Tour de France
The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd Tour de France, starting on June 29 and ending on July 21, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day ....
, he missed a curve when descending a hill in stage 7 (Chambéry
Chambéry
Chambéry is a city in the department of Savoie, located in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.It is the capital of the department and has been the historical capital of the Savoy region since the 13th century, when Amadeus V of Savoy made the city his seat of power.-Geography:Chambéry...
> Les Arcs
Les Arcs
Les Arcs is a ski resort located in Savoie, France, in the Tarentaise Valley town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Initially created by Robert Blanc and Roger Godino...
), and disappeared into a ravine. The frightening moment was captured by a camera team that was driving right behind the group of descenders. After long minutes of uncertainty, Bruyneel could be seen climbing out of the ravine, and getting back onto his bike to continue the stage.
Team managing director
Following his retirement from cycling in 1998 at age 34, Bruyneel accepted the position of managing director of the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, whose star, Lance Armstrong, had finished fourth in the 1998 Vuelta a España1998 Vuelta a España
The 53rd edition of the Vuelta a España was held 5 to 27 September 1998 and began in Córdoba and ended in Madrid. The 1998 Vuelta had 22 stages over 3,774 km with the winning average speed of 40.262 km/h....
, but whose team, in Armstrong's words, was "the Bad News Bears, a mismatch of bikes, cars, clothing, equipment," with a total budget of only $3 million. Bruyneel's team promptly won eight of the next nine editions of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
, with Armstrong winning seven straight prior to his retirement in 2005 and then Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador Velasco is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . He was the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the team. With the Astana team he has won the 2008 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Vuelta a España, the 2009 Tour de France, the 2010 Tour de France and won 2011 Giro...
winning in 2007 with Levi Leipheimer
Levi Leipheimer
Levi Leipheimer is an American professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . His major results are winning the 2007–2009 editions of the Tour of California, the 2006 Dauphiné Libéré and the 2005 Deutschland Tour, coming in second in the 2008 Vuelta a España, third in the 2001 Vuelta a...
finishing third. However, Discovery Channel, which had taken over as the sponsor of the team in 2005, decided to withdraw in 2007 in the wake of the sport's extensive doping scandals, and the team disbanded. At that point, Bruyneel's teams had won ten Grand Tour championships in nine years (8 Tours de France, 1 Giro d'Italia (Savoldelli, 2005) and 1 Vuelta a Espana (Heras, 2003)).
At the time, Bruyneel announced his retirement and his plans to write a book. Bruyneel's book, We Might As Well Win, was published by Houghton Mifflin on 4 June 2008. Also, on 29 May 2008, Bruyneel joined the Board of Directors of World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief
World Bicycle Relief is an international, non-profit organization based in Chicago, IL that specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle distribution programs to aid poverty relief and disaster recovery initiatives in developing countries around the world. Their programs focus primarily on...
. But his retirement did not materialize.
In October 2007, after negotiations with the Kazakh government, Bruyneel was signed to take over control of the embattled team, which had been kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France
2007 Tour de France
The 2007 Tour de France, the 94th running of the race, took place from 7 July to 29 July 2007. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and Spain...
for doping violations and was in shambles over its doping connections. He brought Discovery's Contador and Leipheimer with him for the 2008 season. Although the team was banned from the Tour de France for its past doping history, Contador won both the 2008 Giro d'Italia
2008 Giro d'Italia
The 2008 Giro d'Italia was the 91st running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It began in Palermo on 10 May and ended in Milan on 1 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by Spaniard Alberto Contador of the cycling team...
and the 2008 Vuelta a España
2008 Vuelta a España
The 2008 Vuelta a España was the 63rd edition of the Vuelta a España, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The event took place from 30 August to 21 September 2008 over 21 stages covering . The first stage was a team time trial in Granada. The event finished in Madrid 23 days later...
, making Contador the youngest rider to win all three Grand Tour championships. Additionally, Leipheimer finished second at the Vuelta.
For the 2009 season, Armstrong returned from retirement, joining Contador and Leipheimer at Astana. Contador's victory in the Tour de France and Armstrong's third place meant that Bruyneel had won four of the last six Grand Tours that his teams entered, and thirteen Grand Tour championships in eleven years. Armstrong will form his own team, Team RadioShack
Team RadioShack
Team RadioShack is a professional road bicycle racing team, with RadioShack as the title sponsor, the creation of which was announced on July 23, 2009. Lance Armstrong co-owns and leads the team, which plans to race in the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour, as well as running and triathlon events...
, for 2010, with sponsorship from Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...
and Trek Bicycle Corporation
Trek Bicycle Corporation
Trek Bicycle Corporation is a major bicycle and cycling product manufacturer and distributor under brand names Trek, Gary Fisher, Bontrager, Klein and until recently, LeMond Racing Cycles...
. Bruyneel confirmed his departure from Astana at the end of the 2009 season on 21 July 2009.
According to Bruyneel's personal web site, he is fluent in six languages (Dutch, English, Spanish, French, Italian and German).
As of May 2010 he was under investigation by the Belgian cycling federation, after being accused by Floyd Landis
Floyd Landis
Floyd Landis is an American retired cyclist who after initially being awarded victory in the 2006 Tour de France was stripped of his title for a doping offense. He was an all-around rider, with special skills in climbing and time-trialing, and is also known to be a very fast descender.Landis...
of involvement in systematic doping whilst director sportif of Lance Armstrong's US Postal team.
External links
Written Work
- We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind a Record-Setting Eight Tour de France Victories ISBN 0-618-87937-4