An open letter from Johan Bruyneel
06-22-06, 04:39 PM
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An open letter from Johan Bruyneel
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...bruyneelletter
"Is it going to be this year, or next year, or the year after? That I don't know... all I can say is that we're going to keep doing what we've been doing all along, and ultimately, we are going to win again.. "
I'm not sure what the point is... that he doesn't expect to win this year?
Originally Posted by Johann Bruyneel
Lance, with or without you
An open letter from Johan Bruyneel
Sports Manager, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
Thursday, June 22, 2006 Madrid, Spain
Greetings to Cyclingnews readers... We all know that recently there have been some unpleasant happenings in the sport of cycling. But as the 2006 Tour de France gets ready to start, I want to take a moment of your time to talk about the sport that I love, a sport where there are lot of very positive things, and where I see the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team headed.
But before we look to the future, I want to look a little at the past.
When we started in 1999 as the United States Postal Service Team with Lance we had a dream, a vision - a crazy one by some people's thoughts: to win the biggest bike race in the world, the Tour de France, and to focus our efforts on a rider who was just coming back from a very difficult fight against cancer! But we were very dedicated and committed to this goal, in fact we were thrilled to commit ourselves to something as extremely ambitious as this. We had the desire to not leave anything undone and we were extremely passionate.
And just like many new ventures we were inexperienced in the specifics of the task but we were so highly motivated we didn't really care about our lack of experience; we simply had the conviction to succeed! We had no fear of failure, in fact we liked the challenge, and yes we knew that it was a bit of a crazy challenge but we decided to go for it, and we went for it 100% - the only way really that Lance and I know how to do something.
As I looked back on 1999 I realized we had created an experimental formula, and it worked... we won! And over the years we've fine-tuned and repeated this same formula with some amazing results: seven consecutive Tours de France victories as well as championships in the Vuelta España and the Giro d'Italia.
We created a blueprint, a system, that was focused around building an elite team to support Lance, and even though people came and went, the team always became stronger and stronger as we replaced them and moved forward.
We based this program on the "chemistry" inside the team. In this day of professional sports where so much is often focused on the individual, we instead instilled core values such as the importance of team spirit, a strong work ethic, being passionate about what we do, trusting each other, being proud of being part of the team, the will to suffer for the greater good - and much more...
We learned how to work together for one goal, and we became very good at that. We had a never-ending commitment to act until we succeeded. You'll recall key moments such as Lance in the mist atop Sestrière in 1999, Chechu's selfless assistance for Lance on Luz Ardiden in 2003, the dominance of the team over the years in the Team Time Trial, and George's stunning victory in Stage 15 to St-Lary Soulan last year - all moments defined by selfless sacrifice for the team's one goal: victory on the Champs Elysées!
We learned how to overcome obstacles (and we have had to overcome a lot, 2003 in particular...). We saw that others tried to copy us - but to me that means that you're doing things right - and so we always tried to stay ahead of our competitors and we did this through better training, better technology, and better tactics. But truthfully a lot of times, we turned off our brain and listened to our heart...
It is no surprise to anyone that we have an obsessive attention to details as I believe this is where the difference is made between victory and second place. We know how to deal with pressure, and yes, we learned how to play "cycling poker" as you saw when Lance bluffed everyone in the 2001 Tour before launching his devastating attack on Alpe d'Huez! - and I can go on and on and on...
And so now we're facing the same race we have won seven years in a row. It's clear that we're in a transition period and every change takes time, but we're looking forward to the new challenge and we're extremely motivated! Yes, Lance is gone as a rider for our team, but his spirit and guidance as a leader is definitely still here. And when I look at the list of values that I noted above, they are still there as well. We still have the dream, the vision, and definitely the passion! - and all the other things on my list...
It takes the same amount of effort and time to lose as it does to succeed, so we might as well win! Is it going to be this year, or next year, or the year after? That I don't know... all I can say is that we're going to keep doing what we've been doing all along, and ultimately, we are going to win again.. and that's why I'm so excited and feeling good about the future, even without you, Lance...
And so I thank you, our team fans for your time and more importantly for your support in the past and the years to come, and I want you to know that the team and I truly appreciate it.
Courtesy of thepaceline.com
(All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2006)
An open letter from Johan Bruyneel
Sports Manager, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
Thursday, June 22, 2006 Madrid, Spain
Greetings to Cyclingnews readers... We all know that recently there have been some unpleasant happenings in the sport of cycling. But as the 2006 Tour de France gets ready to start, I want to take a moment of your time to talk about the sport that I love, a sport where there are lot of very positive things, and where I see the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team headed.
But before we look to the future, I want to look a little at the past.
When we started in 1999 as the United States Postal Service Team with Lance we had a dream, a vision - a crazy one by some people's thoughts: to win the biggest bike race in the world, the Tour de France, and to focus our efforts on a rider who was just coming back from a very difficult fight against cancer! But we were very dedicated and committed to this goal, in fact we were thrilled to commit ourselves to something as extremely ambitious as this. We had the desire to not leave anything undone and we were extremely passionate.
And just like many new ventures we were inexperienced in the specifics of the task but we were so highly motivated we didn't really care about our lack of experience; we simply had the conviction to succeed! We had no fear of failure, in fact we liked the challenge, and yes we knew that it was a bit of a crazy challenge but we decided to go for it, and we went for it 100% - the only way really that Lance and I know how to do something.
As I looked back on 1999 I realized we had created an experimental formula, and it worked... we won! And over the years we've fine-tuned and repeated this same formula with some amazing results: seven consecutive Tours de France victories as well as championships in the Vuelta España and the Giro d'Italia.
We created a blueprint, a system, that was focused around building an elite team to support Lance, and even though people came and went, the team always became stronger and stronger as we replaced them and moved forward.
We based this program on the "chemistry" inside the team. In this day of professional sports where so much is often focused on the individual, we instead instilled core values such as the importance of team spirit, a strong work ethic, being passionate about what we do, trusting each other, being proud of being part of the team, the will to suffer for the greater good - and much more...
We learned how to work together for one goal, and we became very good at that. We had a never-ending commitment to act until we succeeded. You'll recall key moments such as Lance in the mist atop Sestrière in 1999, Chechu's selfless assistance for Lance on Luz Ardiden in 2003, the dominance of the team over the years in the Team Time Trial, and George's stunning victory in Stage 15 to St-Lary Soulan last year - all moments defined by selfless sacrifice for the team's one goal: victory on the Champs Elysées!
We learned how to overcome obstacles (and we have had to overcome a lot, 2003 in particular...). We saw that others tried to copy us - but to me that means that you're doing things right - and so we always tried to stay ahead of our competitors and we did this through better training, better technology, and better tactics. But truthfully a lot of times, we turned off our brain and listened to our heart...
It is no surprise to anyone that we have an obsessive attention to details as I believe this is where the difference is made between victory and second place. We know how to deal with pressure, and yes, we learned how to play "cycling poker" as you saw when Lance bluffed everyone in the 2001 Tour before launching his devastating attack on Alpe d'Huez! - and I can go on and on and on...
And so now we're facing the same race we have won seven years in a row. It's clear that we're in a transition period and every change takes time, but we're looking forward to the new challenge and we're extremely motivated! Yes, Lance is gone as a rider for our team, but his spirit and guidance as a leader is definitely still here. And when I look at the list of values that I noted above, they are still there as well. We still have the dream, the vision, and definitely the passion! - and all the other things on my list...
It takes the same amount of effort and time to lose as it does to succeed, so we might as well win! Is it going to be this year, or next year, or the year after? That I don't know... all I can say is that we're going to keep doing what we've been doing all along, and ultimately, we are going to win again.. and that's why I'm so excited and feeling good about the future, even without you, Lance...
And so I thank you, our team fans for your time and more importantly for your support in the past and the years to come, and I want you to know that the team and I truly appreciate it.
Courtesy of thepaceline.com
(All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2006)
I'm not sure what the point is... that he doesn't expect to win this year?
06-22-06, 11:04 PM
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Focus on the Team????
"We based this program on the "chemistry" inside the team. In this day of professional sports where so much is often focused on the individual, we instead instilled core values such as the importance of team spirit.."
Not sure I would be bringing up "chemistry" as the basis for the team, two Spanish teams have recently had problems with that, right? Also, Postal/Discovery in the Lance days was so focused on one individual countless riders not willing to submit were driven out. Of course, when you have the greatest individual rider ever your team should be based on him, but don't try to sell us this nonsense, Johan. You don't have the rider to win, no biggie, 19 other teams are in your boat. Stop living in the past and get some damn stage wins! I would rather see that, than George try to be the last guy dropped and finish fifth.
Not sure I would be bringing up "chemistry" as the basis for the team, two Spanish teams have recently had problems with that, right? Also, Postal/Discovery in the Lance days was so focused on one individual countless riders not willing to submit were driven out. Of course, when you have the greatest individual rider ever your team should be based on him, but don't try to sell us this nonsense, Johan. You don't have the rider to win, no biggie, 19 other teams are in your boat. Stop living in the past and get some damn stage wins! I would rather see that, than George try to be the last guy dropped and finish fifth.
06-22-06, 11:17 PM
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I don't get it. What's the big deal? Preparing everyone for a bad team classication and no GC hope?
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
06-22-06, 11:30 PM
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Originally Posted by PedalMasher
I don't get it. What's the big deal? Preparing everyone for a bad team classication and no GC hope?
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
Disco looks more like a Belgian team sometimes. Hmmm...there's a word for that but it escapes me at the moment...
I also wonder about this thing he's been saying about waiting to see how his riders do at the tour before picking a "leader". If they are going to protect a few people, but wait until the mountain stages to put all their efforts behind someone, then why all the pictures of Hincapie all over their website? "Disco announces Tour Team" and then Big George's face all over the place. not that I have a problem with that, but it makes me wonder.
Johan is good at bluffing too. Do yo think he's saying this stuff to make people think Disco is not in contention so people won't mark his riders like Landis, Basso, Levi, ...
06-23-06, 08:34 AM
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Disco is US owned the others are not- regardless of the nationality of the hired riders Disco is a US team.
06-23-06, 08:54 AM
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Originally Posted by PedalMasher
I don't get it. What's the big deal? Preparing everyone for a bad team classication and no GC hope?
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
It's funny how Disco is billed as America's team but Davitamon-Lotto and CSC have more americans on them than Disco does.
06-23-06, 09:06 AM
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Isn't El Segundo, Calif. still in the good old USofA? Or did we ship it off to El Mexico? Later.
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06-23-06, 09:32 AM
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"Before we look to the future, I want to look a little at the past."
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago? It's not like Lance has a picture in his attic that gets old while he stays young. It's a week before the Tour, Johan, you don't get to look a little at the past. You get to manage the team now and build it for the future.
Good lord, I don't hear this level of nostalgia-laden nonsense from aging Packer fans. "Gosh, wasn't it super and wonderful when Favre was good. There were more rainbows in the sky, I think. Kittens, too. Lots more kittens."
You don't get to look back, Johan. You get to look forward. You get to build a team. And they get to go out and win. Or give it everything they have. That's it. That's their job. That's your job. Do it.
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago? It's not like Lance has a picture in his attic that gets old while he stays young. It's a week before the Tour, Johan, you don't get to look a little at the past. You get to manage the team now and build it for the future.
Good lord, I don't hear this level of nostalgia-laden nonsense from aging Packer fans. "Gosh, wasn't it super and wonderful when Favre was good. There were more rainbows in the sky, I think. Kittens, too. Lots more kittens."
You don't get to look back, Johan. You get to look forward. You get to build a team. And they get to go out and win. Or give it everything they have. That's it. That's their job. That's your job. Do it.
06-23-06, 11:06 AM
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To put the note into context - it originated on the www.thepaceline.com site and appears to have been sent to Cycling News. Looks like the "Greetings to cyclingnews.com readers..." was added when it was posted on their site.
Reading it as if it were on the Paceline.com site, makes a little more sense - coming from cyclingnews.com, seems to come out of left-field.
Reading it as if it were on the Paceline.com site, makes a little more sense - coming from cyclingnews.com, seems to come out of left-field.
06-23-06, 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Cromulent
"Before we look to the future, I want to look a little at the past."
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago?
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago?
06-24-06, 12:36 PM
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Originally Posted by DocRay
CSC's sponsor is even American. It's Bruyneel's "I suck as a GC without Lance" speech.
06-24-06, 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Cromulent
"Before we look to the future, I want to look a little at the past."
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago? It's not like Lance has a picture in his attic that gets old while he stays young. It's a week before the Tour, Johan, you don't get to look a little at the past. You get to manage the team now and build it for the future.
Good lord, I don't hear this level of nostalgia-laden nonsense from aging Packer fans. "Gosh, wasn't it super and wonderful when Favre was good. There were more rainbows in the sky, I think. Kittens, too. Lots more kittens."
You don't get to look back, Johan. You get to look forward. You get to build a team. And they get to go out and win. Or give it everything they have. That's it. That's their job. That's your job. Do it.
I understand where Johan is coming from but... what??? Shouldn't he have been looking to the future a couple of years ago? It's not like Lance has a picture in his attic that gets old while he stays young. It's a week before the Tour, Johan, you don't get to look a little at the past. You get to manage the team now and build it for the future.
Good lord, I don't hear this level of nostalgia-laden nonsense from aging Packer fans. "Gosh, wasn't it super and wonderful when Favre was good. There were more rainbows in the sky, I think. Kittens, too. Lots more kittens."
You don't get to look back, Johan. You get to look forward. You get to build a team. And they get to go out and win. Or give it everything they have. That's it. That's their job. That's your job. Do it.
06-26-06, 12:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Voodoo76
Kinda reminds one of the joke "how many Packer fans does it take to change a light bulb? One to put in the new one and 10 to reminice about how good the old one was".
08-14-09, 05:11 AM
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Johan, with all due respect,The dream team was a title given to the armada of lawyers that succeeded to acquit
OJ Simpson .
You could have handled that case single handed.
So yes, you are in the wrong business ,but then again , maybe the money is better in cycling?
Donald Trump beware! Johan is in town...on the sly.
OJ Simpson .
You could have handled that case single handed.
So yes, you are in the wrong business ,but then again , maybe the money is better in cycling?
Donald Trump beware! Johan is in town...on the sly.
2. The 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team was the Dream Team first.
08-17-09, 03:21 AM
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Johan, with all due respect,The dream team was a title given to the armada of lawyers that succeeded to acquit
OJ Simpson .
You could have handled that case single handed.
So yes, you are in the wrong business ,but then again , maybe the money is better in cycling?
Donald Trump beware! Johan is in town...on the sly.
OJ Simpson .
You could have handled that case single handed.
So yes, you are in the wrong business ,but then again , maybe the money is better in cycling?
Donald Trump beware! Johan is in town...on the sly.
08-17-09, 03:09 PM
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I think this line in Johan's open letter is funny:
We based this program on the "chemistry" inside the team.
We based this program on the "chemistry" inside the team.
09-13-09, 08:58 PM
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Making a kilometer blurry
