Cycling Savant: Johan Bruyneel

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

FOOTBALL HAS VINCE LOMBARDI. Baseball has Joe Torre. Cycling's behind-the-scenes wiz? Johan Bruyneel. As former team director for the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams, he and Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours de France. After Armstrong retired in 2005, Bruyneel proved his wins weren't all Armstrong-linked when his rider Alberto Contador grabbed 2007's yellow jersey.

In January, he became general manager for Kazakhstan's Astana — a team embroiled in a doping controversy last year — with the goal of cleaning up its act. Contador followed but won't be able to defend his title, as Astana is disqualified from 2008's Tour. But Bruyneel is busy promoting his book, "We Might as Well Win" ($25, Houghton Mifflin). Catch him Wednesday at Clarendon's Revolution Cycles (12:30 p.m., Revolutioncycles.com) and Politics & Prose (7 p.m., Politics-prose.com)

» EXPRESS: Is it frustrating not to have Astana at Tour de France when the riders being disqualified weren't the ones accused of doping?
» BRUYNEEL: It was frustrating at the beginning, but I knew this was going to be a challenge. I don't think they made a fair decision, but so be it. Everybody — well, except some people in France — are seeing we're doing things right.

» EXPRESS: It's a shame Contador can't defend his title.
» BRUYNEEL: Well, we go step by step, and I have seen this as a transition year. For a transition year, it's not bad.

» EXPRESS: Will you still go?
» BRUYNEEL: On the last week of the Tour, I will be there in a position to comment on races. I think it's a good opportunity to go there and try to see it from a different angle. It's going to be a new experience for me. I'm looking forward to it.

» EXPRESS: In your book, you say at times TV announcers have no idea what's going on. Should we mute them?
» BRUYNEEL: It depends what channel you're watching. For the Americans, I'd say they have some good experts. Even if I'm not happy with the people running the Tour, I would encourage all Americans to watch it because it's still going to be exciting. There's no clear favorite. It's going to be an open race. Anything can happen.

Photo courtesy Johan Bruyneel