Summary: Johan Bruyneel, the team manager for all 7 of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France victories and this year’s comeback season, has developed a record as one of the winning-est managers in cycling history with a record eleven grand tour titles to his resume. Bruyneel’s book about his career and how he wins is only average as a cycling tome but is an excellent strategy book if you can get beyond the occasional corporate psychobabble.
Rating: 4/5
Price: $25
Availability: Most bookstores and online distributors.
Cashing in on the fame and success of Lance Armstrong has been somewhat of a cottage industry in the last few years. This latest entry from former and now current Armstrong team manager, Johan Bruyneel, continues the trend with a detailed, if at times guarded, look at his roll in the successes running a winning team, both with and without Armstrong.
The book is an autobiographically account of Bruyneel’s entire racing career and the lessons he learned along the way. For those who’ve come to pro cycling later, Bruyneel had a full career as a racer himself before managing U.S. Postal/Discovery. He had many successes racing for Lotto and ONCE including once wearing the yellow jersey himself beating the great Miguel Indurain to take a stage as well finishing 3rd overall in the Vuelta a España. While he was a good tactician in the peloton, he never had the legs to be a grand tour contender. This mind, not his body, is what served him best both as a rider and manager.
Growing up in cycling mad Belgium, he showed promise early on as an amateur but pursued higher education upon his father’s request before giving pro cycling a go. One wonders if this education and middle class upbringing affected Bruyneel’s outlook as a team director. Most directors come from a much more blue collar backgrounds steeped in the traditions and superstitions of cycling’s past. Bruyneel seemed open to trying different strategies and tactics to see what worked best instead of repeating what everyone else had done. It was not clear at the time that his New World mindset would be successful, but he had the vision to try it anyway. This attitude paid off in spades making him one of the winning-est team directors in cycling history, and not just with Armstrong.
The strangest part of this book is its ending, seemingly frozen in time with Bruyneel riding off into the sunset. In 2007, the Team Discovery was unable to find a title sponsor and Armstrong, who co-owned the team, and Bruyneel publicly disbanded the team. Bruyneel makes much of how he truly missed his family and was happy to go out on top with an 8th Tour win with up-and-comer Alberto Contador. The problem with this story is that he was “retired” nary a few months before stepping in as the team director for Astana where he would go on to produce overall victories at the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta, and Tour of California and help Armstrong come out of retirement as well. Much of this happened before this book was published, so its odd that it was ignored.
In order to broaden the appeal of this book, Bruyneel, or more likely his co-author, Bicycling’s Bill Strickland, makes the book more lessons in victory. This is done no doubt to to sell to the corporate crowd clamoring for the latest success book. While the book diverges into corporate speech from time to time, fortunately it quickly gets back to the subject at hand. Actually, the fact that this book focused on Bruyneel’s thought processes when it comes to planning winning strategies is what saves it and makes it worth reading. Those looking for a true behind the scenes look at pro cycling will be disappointed. Bruyneel glosses over the darker side of the sport and does not address why some of his most successful athletes went on to get caught doping once they left his team. However, those wanting to learn more about how a great strategist thinks will find this book an enjoyable read.
Related posts:
0 Comments on “Book Review: We Might as Well Win by Johan Bruyneel”
Leave a Comment