Pro cycling is getting a lot of ink in California publications this week as the peloton gathers to start the 9-day Amgen Tour of California on Saturday in Sacramento.
One of the most interesting stories has been Bob Padecky's column about Johan Bruyneel, the director of the Astana team.
Bruyneel was an accomplished cyclist when he decided to retire in 1998 and considered taking charge of the pro cyclists organization. But a young cyclist named Lance Armstrong asked him if he was interested in being director of the U.S. Postal Service pro cycling team.
Going Postal
Padecky writes in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
“This was the road less travelled; in fact, for practical purposes, no one was even on it. U.S. Postal was known as 'The Bad News Bears' back then, a team working on a $3 million annual budget, which was less than the salary of many of the top Grand Tour riders. Led by an American who had never finished a Tour de France.”
As we all know, Bruyneel took the job and launched an unprecedented string of Tour de France victories — seven with Armstrong (under the Postal Service and Discovery flags) and one with Alberto Contador (also Discovery) — in a period of nine years.
Obsession
Padecky attributes most of that success to having an obsessive like Bruyneel direct an obsessive like Armstrong. There's little need to communicate, he writes:
“Obsessives don’t need to speak. Obsessives who value winning just short of total blood loss, who inspect the bike to remove every unnecessary half-ounce, who plot every race as if it were a military invasion, these two guys have been in lock-step the first time Bruyneel told Armstrong to win France, even while Armstrong was still recovering from cancer.”
The column goes on to give some examples of Bruyneel's obsessive behavior.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out with Armstrong, Contador and Levi Leipheimer this season.
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