Johan Bruyneel
Johan Bruyneel, the director of Team RadioShack, wants to play down Lance Armstrong’s rivalry with Alberto Contador at the Tour de France. Their rivalry was well-documented when they raced for Astana last season, and Bruyneel was the team director. Contador won the Tour last year and Armstrong finished third.
Bruyneel and Armstrong joined the new RadioShack team this year. Bruyneel believes that Andy and Frank Schleck and Bradley Wiggins can only gain “an advantage” from an Armstrong-Contador focus during the race from July 3 to July 25.
“I think it’s wrong to look at it that way because it only provides the other contenders with an advantage,” Bruyneel said yesterday. “There’s no point in going on about Contador-Armstrong because we only spend more energy on that, and that just helps the others.”
Source: journalnow.com
Thanks Johan, but it’s interesting stuff – you must admit!
I do now wonder whether you believe that Bertie is mentally stronger than Lance, surely not. Lance will blast him this year with the support of Shack.
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As much as I would like to see the Shack team and Lance have a great TDF, I don’t think Lance has a shot at beating Alberto. Last year Alberto was kept on a tight leash and wasn’t encouraged to attack. There’s no way Lance can match Alberto’s acceleration and maintain pace. Now with all that said, I’m pulling for Andy Schleck.
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Contador / Lance will sell papers and every reporter knows it. But to think that the TDF is a two man race (LA and AC) is just crazy. These two teams will have their hands full when the other teams try and fly under the radar while all the noise is being made about this supposed “rivalry”. Good luck Team Radio Shack with staying healthy and see you at the T0C this year.
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With the notion that contador was kept on a leash is a reason to believe that kept armstrong in the race is fallacious. It can also be said that it gave him more energy to accelerate on the latter mountain stages which gave him the deciding advantage. He could have squandered his energy long before and struggled towards the end. Speculation is just that.
what is very disturbing to me is armstrong’s downplaying of his chances to win in France.
“It isn’t essential (for me to win). I don’t need to especially, other than to reward all the hard work. There is no difference between winning seven or eight.
“The next Tour will be a great story, the rivalry with Contador, what happened last year…This is good for the Tour but it won’t change my life whether I win or not.”
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