Johan Bruyneel

Johan Bruyneel

Bruyneel (left) with Pat McQuaid during the 2006 Tour of California
Personal information
Full name	Johan Bruyneel
Nickname	The Hog
Born	23 August 1964 (1964-08-23) Izegem, Belgium
Team information
Current team	RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Discipline	Road
Role	Manager
Professional team(s)
1989 1990–1991 1992–1995 1996–1997 1998	SEFB Lotto-Superclub ONCE Rabobank ONCE
Managerial team(s)
1999–2007 2008–2009 2010–2011 2012–	US Postal Astana Team RadioShack RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Major wins
Tour de l'Avenir Rund um den Henninger Turm Tour de France, 2 stages Vuelta a España, 1 stage
Infobox last updated on 17 January 2012

Johan Bruyneel (born 23 August 1964, Izegem, Belgium) is a former road bicycle racer in professional cycling and a directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. Retiring from racing in 1998, he became director of US Postal (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 Astana team beginning in 2008, and achieved victories in each of cycling's Grand Tours with Contador with Astana.

History

Professional cyclist

Bruyneel was a successful professional cyclist. Early wins included the 1990 Tour de l'Avenir, 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.

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 España, 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 Astana 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.

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

External links

• Johan Bruyneel profile at Cycling Archives
• Official Tour de France results for Johan Bruyneel
• Official website