OOh, handbags at dawn!
Another rash of news reports concerning the friction between Frandy and the Bruyneel bloke: plus a video of Andy being interviewed, in which he criticises Mr Bruyneel for making his comments via the media, and says "A team director should always defend the rider." Quite right, Andy, well said. Sorry that I don't have a link to the video: LLB found it yesterday while we were watching streams of Lux last day and Dauphine prologue at exactly the same time - talking of which, boy, that was bad programming! Very annoying, to have both cycle races on at exactly the same time! We were being very modern and trendy, and were sitting side by side on the sofa, each with a laptop, each watching a different race. Right up until the moment LLB said "oh, Andy is off the ramp next" and I suddenly realised that I was watching the wrong one... anyone who was following me on Twitter yesterday will remember the mad panic to get rid of the Lux stream and get the Dauphine stream up and running... and no, I didn't quite manage it. Grrr!
Anyway, back to the point:
Then there's a report in Velonation (amusingly titled "Andy Schleck has a Dig at Bruyneel") in which Andy is quoted as saying "Personally, if I was a manager I wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press," and "I would discuss them internally. Maybe Bruyneel was being rushed by the team sponsors, who might be getting impatient."
How's that for honesty, tact and diplomacy all in one neat tidy little package? Once again, instead of reacting angrily, effing and blinding, and making things worse, Andy manages to stay polite, get his point across, yet still give a graceful option for the other person. Nice one, Andy. *pats on shoulder*
Mr Bryneel, on the other hand, spouts off at great length about, well, about himself mostly, and manages to insult the riders in various ways. love his barbed little sub-text messages (when I say that, I mean that I hate, loathe and despise them, but at the same time I have to admire the craftsmanship) such as in this report, he says:
“Sometimes hard words are needed. I've never refrained myself towards anybody and I think that everybody who's mentally strong draws positive lessons from that.”
Subtext: anyone who complains about me speaking hard words to them is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! Anyone who fails to draw a positive lesson from me is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! He seems to live in a wonderfully self-centred world, doesn't he? He may well have been one of the strongest team managers for many years, but frankly, what did he do in 2010? In 2011? And, you have to say, despite getting the best of the Leopards to prop up his ageing team, what has he done in 2012? As Emjay said in the last post, usually when a team fails to perform, it's the manager who gets the shove!
Ah well, perhaps things will sort themselves out: perhaps now that Jakob has won the Tour of Lux for the Shack, Mr Bruyneel might feel a bit happier. Perhaps if they do well in the Dauphine, he might change his tune.
Talking of which, hopefully there will be some more stream-watching of the Dauphine later this afternoon, so I hope to bump into some of you on Twitter later!
