Whoo hooo! In a staggering display of bad manners and bad management, Mr Bruyneel has told a Luxembourg magazine, Tageblatt ("Daily Paper") that he is disappointed in Frankie for leaving the Giro as he did, and has insinuated that Frankie's shoulder injury was not bad enough to cause him to abandon the race.
"He might have had an injury to his shoulder, but yesterday he finished with the best, so his physical condition could not have been bad, when he rides with the top 10 places.”
This is, of course, a valid criticism, but doesn't take into account Frankie's own point of view, as reported on the RadioShack website, where he says:
“My right shoulder has been hurt and dislocated and since I was sitting wrong on the bike my entire left side is numb,”
I don't think anyone would expect a rider to continue in that sort of condition, and if Frankie managed to come in the top 10 despite that level of discomfort, then he is to be praised for struggling on, I would have thought.
I wonder if Frankie did not want to make a fuss about his shoulder over the weekend? Personally, if I were in that situation, and if I knew my boss didn't like me, I'd keep as quiet as possible and hope that it got better. But if I liked and trusted my boss, I'd discuss it with them, ask for their advice, discuss the options, maybe try a different treatment in the evenings, etc. So it's quite possible that Mr Bruyneel has brought this on himself.
There's even a lovely rumour, in that article, that Frankie chose that stage to quit, specifically because it was near to an airport so that he could fly home as quickly as possible! And instead of dismissing this as ridiculous rubbish, Mr Bruyneel said that he asked Frankie about it! (Frankie denied it, in case you wondered.)
Mr Bruyneel goes on to say that "after his crash he was broken down in the head." Way to go, Mr B, that's really the way to motivate your riders. OK, it might have lost (or gained) something in the translation, but what ever happened to positive spin? Apparently that is no longer required if you ride for RadioShack, as Mr Bruyneel, after saying that no-one is guaranteed a place in the Tour, not even those who finished on the podium last year - er, that would be Andy and Frankie, then - goes on to say, as Brisbane Gal commented on the last post:
"Currently none of the team is at the level that we expected. Only Fabian Cancellara was, before he crashed; all the others have under performed. Currently there isn’t a single rider set for the Tour de France."
“Nobody.”
*rolls eyes* Yes, definitely the way to motivate your team - slag them off in public! I am so glad that I'm not going to be invited to the forthcoming intimidating-sounding meeting: “I have to say some things internally. I’m very dissatisfied." says Mr Bruyneel to the newspaper.
Nice of him to tell the world before he tells his own riders...
The only bright spot in the whole debacle is that at least we have now been told that Frankie will be riding the Tour of Luxembourg.
That'll be without Andy, then.
Wow, I've been so caught up with traineeship duties over the past two weeks that I clearly missed out on a lot!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had time to catch up on everything yet. But to put it mildly, things seem to be going from bad to worse at the team...Of course, when there's two fighting, there's two to blame. But I don't like Bruyneel's comments in that article at all. That's not exactly the way to get your team motivated when things are already going bad.
If Fränk dislocated his shoulder he should indeed be praised for trying to keep going. Most people need to recover from that for a while, let alone it being a very painful injury.
Maybe Mr B is still frustrated with all that happened when he entered the USA?
What bothers me most is that he's taking it to the press first, before speaking to his team. On the other hand, I didn't expect anything else from him as it's exactly the same way the news of the merger was brought to the teams.
I really hope they'll kick him out by the end of the year (or today, or yesterday...)
Inge
I felt extremely frustrated when the news of Frank's abandoning came around. It really spoiled my Sunday and my pleasure to watch the Giro any further.
ReplyDeleteMore people, and especially those from the team, must have had the same feelings. So sometimes it's a good thing to utter your frustations with the hope of clearing the sky and getting out of the spidersweb.
My sympathy goes out to the Giro organization, they don't deserve that this great tour is so badly attended by first class riders.
Barbara.
Sounds like Mr. Crankypants has got his monthly...hehe
ReplyDeleteNot the best way to get respect from your team, he may find himself without any Schlecks next season if he's not careful (or is that his evil plan???)
As Barbara said it is very disappointing that so many top riders have abandoned the Giro, but it shouldn't take anything away from the riders how are still there, the lesser known riders seem to have more drive and committment to the grand tours, probably because winning a stage is the highlight of their career!
Sounds (at least on the surface) that Johann and Frankie have worked out some issues. Twitter suggests, Mr. Becca may have become involved. (!!!!)
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile Ted King is in Boulder - turns out he has a broken rib fro Stage 1 crash in ATOC - made it through it all and rode like a champ.
Felt the pain once the adrenaline wore off...like at the airport on the way to CO. Tough, tough puppy. He may be the next Jens!
BE
There was an interview with Frank in yesterday's L'Essentiel newspaper. It's in French, but here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/sports/dossier/radioshack/story/J-etais-sur-le-Tour-d-Italie-pour-gagner--10586081
Thanks for the link! - Kat
DeleteHmmm... there's an interesting prospect - Contador to Omega-Pharma http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lefevere-chasing-contador-deal.
ReplyDeleteCome on Sexybank reunion!
Brisbane Gal
Coug, the following is a snippet from an article on Cyclingnews quoting Mr. Bruyneel (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bruyneel-only-cancellara-is-assured-of-tour-de-france-spot):
ReplyDelete"Frank and Andy Schleck have so far not lived up to the status of leaders. I was very disappointed last week that Frank left the Giro d'Italia. Hindsight is that his injury was more serious than at first sight appeared. Yet in recent years I have seen many more great riders seem more dead than alive and still pick themselves up and absolutely have to have the will to continue. I sometimes miss that a bit.
"There is Fabian Cancellara, and after him nobody is sure of a place in the squad for the Tour de France. Both Schleck brothers know that. They have no license. So far I still have no vision of my Tour cycling team with both Schleck brothers in it."
I appreciate that we've already covered this in your post above, but I need to ask, if your boss wrote this in his regular newspaper column, would this motivate you to go the extra mile for him when the chips are down? I guess we are all different in what motivates us but I personally could not work for someone like this. I don't take issue with his high expectations or being honest about what he sees as his team's under-performance so far this year (didn't copy that part of the article) but there is a level of professionalism and class that is missing in his all of his communication and in how he treats his team publicly.
I can't quite articulate what I'm feeling about this next bit, but there is something about Cancellara's presence that I sense not even Bruyneel can touch. It is easier when you generate "good" results but my sense is that it goes even beyond that. It's like Fabian has his own program and his own way of doing things that people aren't likely to mess with. Interesting that the same respect doesn't appear to be there for Andy and Frank. Perhaps that is because they haven't actually stood in the middle podium spot yet but holy hanna, Mr. Consistency is Andy's other name! It's not like he doesn't know how to get there. Frank too.
All that said, do any of you think that Bruyneel can really leave both brothers off the Tour de France team? I think he would face tremendous pressure from sponsors etc and I can't see that even being an option. So then Bruyneel's comments become empty threats and the team just learn to tune him out. Not a great way to build and inspire a team in my eyes, even if we are talking about professional athletes who are highly self-motivated achievers in their own right.
Anyway ... the drama continues for all the public to read and comment on, like I'm doing right now.
Kat
PS Just a quick thank you to Brisbane Girl for the link to the Contador story. Appreciate the information that everyone shares! Thanks for facilitating that Coug.
Hey Kat, and everyone else: yes, I agree with everything you have said! I could not possibly work for a man who spouts off as Mr Bruyneel has done: I think he is right to suspect that Andy and Frankie "could" have done better, but I think he is blinkered and insensitive not to realise why.
ReplyDeleteRegarding sponsor pressure for the Tour - actually, what pressure? Radioshack would want the US riders in it, Nissan have been sponsoring the Shack and Mr Bruyneel, so they'll go with whatever he thinks is best (and don't forget it's about winning the race, not showing off your new aquisitions, and we all know the parcours is not exactly Frandy-friendly) and Trek won't care as long as whoever rides is on one of their bikes.
As far as our athletes being self-motivated goes, this is true to a point, but there are any number of riders you can point at, who have either shown great promise in one team, moved teams and done nothing; or the other way round (Simon Gerrans - who never seemed to settle down at Sky, but look how he did once he moved to Greenedge!) which does suggest that riders are more sensitive to poor/inappropriate leadership than we might think.
Yes, Fabu is a law unto himself! *waves banner for Fab*
And thank you for the PS - honestly, I'm that busy at the moment that sometimes I have considered setting up a post for each day that just says "Saturday - hilly stage" and a brief introduction of the stage, just so that you can all leave your comments here and have a conversation about it, if I'm too busy to write new posts!
It seems a shame to "lose" Schlecklanders, and I am aware that if I don't post often, people do wander off and find something more current to follow. *looks guilty* Sorry folks! Perhaps I'll do it as an experiment? OK, I'll set up a new post for each day, and we can all add comments - let's see how that works for a couple of days! Then as and when I get time, I can expand the next post. Or if something irresistable comes up.....
Coug
Feeling rather sympathetic because the blog can't take over your life either. While I am always respectful of the fact that this is your blog, I think that it's great when the other girls post current comments or links too because it helps you out a bit and keeps your blog current. That said, you can see from the posts that it's you that everyone comes here to interact with. :) - Kat
DeleteD'aaw, stoppit! *blushes*
ReplyDeleteI just wish I had more time: if I rush out a quick blog post, I inevitably get something wrong! Better to go for quality than quantity, I guess.
Coug
Quality, definitely. It is what (most) of your readers respond to. I say "most", because if I see blank space, I'm in there like a dirty shirt trying to fill it up! *rolling my eyes and giggling away* Apparently, I'm not so much about the whole "quality" thing! :D - Kat
Delete