Phil C
07-29-2008, 02:49 PM
It is called "We Might as Well Win" by Johan Bruyneel. It is highly recommended by the distinguished Tour De France commentator Phil Liggett and Robin Williams the great Academy award winning actor and comedian and bicycling fan. The book should be available at your local book store and I am going to go get one when I go to Corpus Christi or order it.
Johan is a well known cycling team director which is what a head football coach is to an NFL football team. He has been called the Vince Lombardi of cycling having had the winning Tour De France (TDF) winner once 8 out of 9 years which had never been done before. Johan was born in 8-23-64 in Izegem, Belguim. He lives in Madrid, Spain where he is a naturalized citizen. His wife is named Eva Marie and he has a daughter named Victoria. He raced for 8 years and won a TDF stage in 1993 and in 1995 where he won stage 7 and had the yellow jersey for one day. He finished 7th overall in the TDF in 1993. He retired in 1998 to become a team director and became associated with the US Postal Service and the owner. They needed to find a rider and he noticed something he liked about Lance Armstrong when Lance (who had just recovered from his serious illness) finished fourth in a one day race. He approached Lance to convince him that he should join his cycling team and concentrate on winning the TDF yellow jersey. He says this was his hardest job but Lance came around. He got together a team without sprinters whose sole job was to support Lance in winning the yellow jersey. Lance went on with Johan coaching him to win 7 straight tours - a record. In 2006 they had mainly a rebuilding year since Lance retired but in 2007 he proved he could coach anyone with ability and desire as Alberto Contador got first place and Levi Leipheimer came in third within a minute of each other. He sat out the last tour and commented on the race with the Versus commentators which was a treat but we are looking forward next year for him to get with his team as a team director. He has a BA in Marketing and speaks 6 languages fluenty which includes French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and German.
We look forward to reading this great book!
Johan is a well known cycling team director which is what a head football coach is to an NFL football team. He has been called the Vince Lombardi of cycling having had the winning Tour De France (TDF) winner once 8 out of 9 years which had never been done before. Johan was born in 8-23-64 in Izegem, Belguim. He lives in Madrid, Spain where he is a naturalized citizen. His wife is named Eva Marie and he has a daughter named Victoria. He raced for 8 years and won a TDF stage in 1993 and in 1995 where he won stage 7 and had the yellow jersey for one day. He finished 7th overall in the TDF in 1993. He retired in 1998 to become a team director and became associated with the US Postal Service and the owner. They needed to find a rider and he noticed something he liked about Lance Armstrong when Lance (who had just recovered from his serious illness) finished fourth in a one day race. He approached Lance to convince him that he should join his cycling team and concentrate on winning the TDF yellow jersey. He says this was his hardest job but Lance came around. He got together a team without sprinters whose sole job was to support Lance in winning the yellow jersey. Lance went on with Johan coaching him to win 7 straight tours - a record. In 2006 they had mainly a rebuilding year since Lance retired but in 2007 he proved he could coach anyone with ability and desire as Alberto Contador got first place and Levi Leipheimer came in third within a minute of each other. He sat out the last tour and commented on the race with the Versus commentators which was a treat but we are looking forward next year for him to get with his team as a team director. He has a BA in Marketing and speaks 6 languages fluenty which includes French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and German.
We look forward to reading this great book!