Bruyneel's tough love?

Bakunin

The Hog's gotta lighten up a little...leave those poor Schleck boys alone.

Geez, doesn't he know that Andy is a TdF champion?

"Frank and Andy Schleck have so far not lived up to the status of leaders. I was very disappointed last week that Frank left the Giro d'Italia. Hindsight is that his injury was more serious than at first sight appeared. Yet in recent years I have seen many more great riders seem more dead than alive and still pick themselves up and absolutely have to have the will to continue. I sometimes miss that a bit.

"There is Fabian Cancellara, and after him nobody is sure of a place in the squad for the Tour de France. Both Schleck brothers know that. They have no license. So far I still have no vision of my Tour cycling team with both Schleck brothers in it."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bruynee ... rance-spot

cycling5280

Andy is only a TDF champion in the courtroom. He has said it himself.

The Schlecks finally have a real DS who knows how to win and wants to win. It's nice to hear Bruyneel not give a s$#@ that they are brothers and that's why they need to both be in the Tour. I'd hate to see guys like Voigt and Cancellara work their butts off for three weeks only to hear the Schlecks complain and possibly just drop out. I've said before and I'll say it again. I hope Radioshack takes a team that goes for stage wins. Schlecks will not even podium.

patchy

Heh. Perhaps with the amount of TT kilometres, Bruyneel might be seeing Spartacus as a safer bet. He just needs to find some way to 'do a Lance' and drop some body mass!

TMR

patchy wrote:

He just needs to find some way to 'do a Lance' and drop some body mass!

I don't think the sport really needs anyone else to 'do a Lance'.

BikingBernie

patchy wrote:

Heh. Perhaps with the amount of TT kilometres, Bruyneel might be seeing Spartacus as a safer bet. He just needs to find some way to 'do a Lance' and drop some body mass!

How on Earth is this myth still circulating when figures from Armstrong's own camp show that his weight when he first 'won' the Tour was within a kg or so of his pre-cancer weight? Unless, of course 'dropping some body mass' is a euphemism for withdrawing blood for centrifuging and later re-injection during the Tour.

richard wants a baum

I've been trying to remember but cant seem to, but am I correct in thinking that when the teams merged they used the Leopard Trek WT License? wouldn't that possible but Bruyneel in a possible position were the Schlecks could just give him the arse if he keeps this up?

cycling5280

The Mad Rapper wrote:

patchy wrote:

He just needs to find some way to 'do a Lance' and drop some body mass!

I don't think the sport really needs anyone else to 'do a Lance'.

Got to get lean to win tours! Wiggins is lean and now he's winning. Not sure what's going on with the Schlecks though.

TMR

cycling5280 wrote:

Got to get lean to win tours!

That's not what I meant.

iainf72

cycling5280 wrote:

The Schlecks finally have a real DS who knows how to win and wants to win. It's nice to hear Bruyneel not give a s$#@ that they are brothers and that's why they need to both be in the Tour. I'd hate to see guys like Voigt and Cancellara work their butts off for three weeks only to hear the Schlecks complain and possibly just drop out. I've said before and I'll say it again. I hope Radioshack takes a team that goes for stage wins. Schlecks will not even podium.

I think you'll find that Jens and Fabian have a lot more time for the Schlecks than they have for Bruyneel.

Bruyneel isn't good at managing conflict. Look at the 2009 Tour when his team was torn in 2 better Contador and Armstrong. What did he he? Aside from have a ridiculous chin.

TMR

iainf72 wrote:

I think you'll find that Jens and Fabian have a lot more time for the Schlecks than they have for Bruyneel.

Agreed. They both seem to have pinned their colours to the Schleck's mast.

Bruyneel isn't good at managing conflict. Look at the 2009 Tour when his team was torn in 2 better Contador and Armstrong. What did he he? Aside from have a ridiculous chin.

Made for good viewing at the pre/post race PR though

patchy

BikingBernie wrote:

patchy wrote:

Heh. Perhaps with the amount of TT kilometres, Bruyneel might be seeing Spartacus as a safer bet. He just needs to find some way to 'do a Lance' and drop some body mass!

How on Earth is this myth still circulating when figures from Armstrong's own camp show that his weight when he first 'won' the Tour was within a kg or so of his pre-cancer weight? Unless, of course 'dropping some body mass' is a euphemism for withdrawing blood for centrifuging and later re-injection during the Tour.

Bingo.

cycling5280

iainf72 wrote:

cycling5280 wrote:

The Schlecks finally have a real DS who knows how to win and wants to win. It's nice to hear Bruyneel not give a s$#@ that they are brothers and that's why they need to both be in the Tour. I'd hate to see guys like Voigt and Cancellara work their butts off for three weeks only to hear the Schlecks complain and possibly just drop out. I've said before and I'll say it again. I hope Radioshack takes a team that goes for stage wins. Schlecks will not even podium.

I think you'll find that Jens and Fabian have a lot more time for the Schlecks than they have for Bruyneel.

Bruyneel isn't good at managing conflict. Look at the 2009 Tour when his team was torn in 2 better Contador and Armstrong. What did he he? Aside from have a ridiculous chin.

You're crazy if you thinking Jens or Fabian have some loyalty to riding for the Schlecks. They are still at team Radioshack because as professionals that's the best scenario for them individually. They have too much respect and professionalism to not obey Bruyneel's orders so of course they will ride for whoever Bruyneel decides is the leader. If Andy and Frank crash out in the Dauphine/Tour of swiss and can't ride the Tour, Fabian and Jens will not hesitate to ride for Jacob Fusglang or Kloden or Horner.

iainf72

I might be crazy, but I know Fabian turned down more money than Leopard offered to stay with the Schlecks / Kim Andersen. And that says a lot to me.

If Bruyneel made anyone but Andy Schleck the leader he'd be a weapons grade moron.

disgruntledgoat

Agree with Ian.

You've got a team with the world's best TT rider who, despite Pro Cycling and other media's fevered imaginings, will never come close to winning a GT, you've got one of the greatest super domestiques ever and you've got a guy who has finished on numerous GT podiums, won some great stages and a LBL. He's happiest when his brother, who has won Amstel Gold and 2 Tour mountain stages including Alpe D'Huez, is with him. All 4 of them have ridden on the same squad in July, using the same tactics, since at least 2008 and you're playing power games to show them who's boss?

The idea of him as some sort of tactical genius seems flawed as well. I can't remember USPS, Disco or Astana pulling off any tactical masterstrokes beyond signing up the best climbing domestiques, juicing them and then sticking them on the front at some ludicrous tempo until there was nobody left.

As to what he did in 2009... "Picked sides" is about the only thing I can remember.

ddraver

^ and the wrong side at that...

Jez mon

On the right sort of climb, IIRC, Fabian can set a pretty fearsome tempo, he can also descend like a daemon, and his TTing is obviously, amazing.

Having said that, there's a world of difference between setting a fearsome tempo on the foothills of some HC climb, and actually being at the sharp end, however many km later.

Maybe with the right preparation and course, Cancellara could break top 10? But even that's a struggle to see.

I've said it in other threads, Bruyneel is clearly unable to adjust his managerial style and he needs to, if he wants a good GC rider on his team for the next few years. He's already seemingly burnt hid bridges with the Spanish one!!

Really, though, the Hog should retire, cycling doesn't need him.

cycling5280

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Agree with Ian.

You've got a team with the world's best TT rider who, despite Pro Cycling and other media's fevered imaginings, will never come close to winning a GT, you've got one of the greatest super domestiques ever and you've got a guy who has finished on numerous GT podiums, won some great stages and a LBL. He's happiest when his brother, who has won Amstel Gold and 2 Tour mountain stages including Alpe D'Huez, is with him. All 4 of them have ridden on the same squad in July, using the same tactics, since at least 2008 and you're playing power games to show them who's boss?

The idea of him as some sort of tactical genius seems flawed as well. I can't remember USPS, Disco or Astana pulling off any tactical masterstrokes beyond signing up the best climbing domestiques, juicing them and then sticking them on the front at some ludicrous tempo until there was nobody left.

As to what he did in 2009... "Picked sides" is about the only thing I can remember.

"He's happiest when his brother, who has won Amstel Gold and 2 Tour mountain stages including Alpe D'Huez, is with him." HAHAHA...no one cares when he's the happiest, he's paid to win the overall GC as a professional. Go back to the amateur ranks and have the Schleck family hold a family picnic to watch him be happy and participate. Maybe that's it, Schleck participates in the Tour. He hasn't won a single stage race as a professional. I can't speak for Radioshack and Nissan but I'm gonna say they did give a crap if he's happy.

Lets be honest tactics in cycling you can count with one hand. The famous Lance look at Ulrich on Alpe D'Huez and the bluff all day that he was hurting only to make other times TRY to ride hard was one of the best tactics ever. I don't think that was Bruyneel as much as it was Armstrong.

Monty Dog

Read Disgruntled Goat's post again, Lance was just more-juiced than anyone else and had the benefit of getting tipped-off when the Testers were coming and always had the 'get out of jail free' option of paying off the UCI. The only tactic JB employed was making sure the blood bags arrived safely and the liaisons with Dr Ferrari.

avoidingmyphd

cycling5280 wrote:

HAHAHA...no one cares when he's the happiest, he's paid to win the overall GC as a professional.

Because there is absolutely no connection between his state of mind and his capacity to do the things that are necessary to win a grand tour.

cycling5280

Monty Dog wrote:

Read Disgruntled Goat's post again, Lance was just more-juiced than anyone else and had the benefit of getting tipped-off when the Testers were coming and always had the 'get out of jail free' option of paying off the UCI. The only tactic JB employed was making sure the blood bags arrived safely and the liaisons with Dr Ferrari.

and this went on for 7+ years and somehow no one has 'evidence' against Lance. Not a single needle, blood bag or anything to test and confirm...again worthy of submitting to authorities as evidence that he doped. Not a single email or phone call or letter to confirm to authorities that he doped.

cycling5280

avoidingmyphd wrote:

cycling5280 wrote:

HAHAHA...no one cares when he's the happiest, he's paid to win the overall GC as a professional.

Because there is absolutely no connection between his state of mind and his capacity to do the things that are necessary to win a grand tour.

You could have the entire Schleck family on a school bus following Andy in a TT and it wouldn't help him go faster. Of course there is that connection but in Andy's situation he's using the 'happy' card too much and not focusing on the task at hand. We all know his excuse if he doesn't win the Tour this year...Bruyneel.

iainf72

cycling5280 wrote:

and this went on for 7+ years and somehow no one has 'evidence' against Lance. Not a single needle, blood bag or anything to test and confirm...again worthy of submitting to authorities as evidence that he doped. Not a single email or phone call or letter to confirm to authorities that he doped.

You don't know very much about cycling, do you?

cycling5280

iainf72 wrote:

cycling5280 wrote:

and this went on for 7+ years and somehow no one has 'evidence' against Lance. Not a single needle, blood bag or anything to test and confirm...again worthy of submitting to authorities as evidence that he doped. Not a single email or phone call or letter to confirm to authorities that he doped.

You don't know very much about cycling, do you?

Probably not as much as you. I do know ASO has Lance winning 7 Tours and that he hasn't been legal found to have doped.

frenchfighter

Seems like some forumites know better than to respond to this American fanatical fan boy poster's deliberately provocative comments.

Monty Dog

$hit, I thought all the fanbois had flipped onto triathlon since his holiness had found a sport where they don't even bother with drug-testing anymore.

cycling5280

frenchfighter wrote:

Seems like some forumites know better than to respond to this American fanatical fan boy poster's deliberately provocative comments.

Just don't post stupid untrue doping allegations on a forum. pretty simple.

cycling5280

Monty Dog wrote:

$hit, I thought all the fanbois had flipped onto triathlon since his holiness had found a sport where they don't even bother with drug-testing anymore.

ignorance is bliss

ddraver

Do you know, I'm trying to think of someone who has made more a fool out of themselves in their first week than cycling5280

...and I honestly can't...

timoid.

ddraver wrote:

Do you know, I'm trying to think of someone who has made more a fool out of themselves in their first week than cycling5280

...and I honestly can't...

FloydFan?

cycling5280

ddraver wrote:

Do you know, I'm trying to think of someone who has made more a fool out of themselves in their first week than cycling5280

...and I honestly can't...

you must be a Schleck fan.

Remarkable

cycling5280 wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Do you know, I'm trying to think of someone who has made more a fool out of themselves in their first week than cycling5280

...and I honestly can't...

you must be a Schleck fan.

Why do insist on talking crap about them? They don't know you. Its pretty easy to act big on a forum. I bet if you were to bump into them you would go weak at the knees. Do you race? If you do, you will understand just how hard racing is at any level.

Anyhu....maybe its JB's way of motivating them. I've heard of some directer sportifs using that tactic over the last couple of years.