Customer Reviews
Gives you a new appreciation for the tactics required to win a Tour de France - By: Julia Flyte, 27 Jul 2008 
This is a fascinating behind the scenes look at what it takes to coach a winning Tour de France team. You can't argue with the author's credentials: Johan Bruyneel was a professional cyclist who competedin the Tour de France himself before becoming the team director behind Lance Armstrong's seven wins & subsequently for Alberto Contadourin 2007.
In this book Bruyneel describes the strategies behind a winning team (and he makes it clear that it's very much a team effort to win the Tour de France). He talks about how a team can control the race, when they should let breakaways go & when they need to chase them down, how they can play the mind game with other teams, the different skillsets that individual riders within a winning team need to have & countless more insights into the world of cycling. I was reading this book during the 2008 Tour & it made me appreciate far more the way that team CSC were approaching the race & why they did some of the things that they did. Very, very interesting.
I didn't like the way that the book jumps aboutin time as required to provide support to the points that Bruyneel is making. For example, Chapter 6 talks about the 2001 tour, Chapter 7 talks about the 1999 tour & Chapter 11 talks about the tourin 2000. While Bruyneel makes it clear at the outset that he hasn't set out to write an autobiography, the book would have been enhanced (and easier to follow) if he'd kept thingsin chronological order.
Bruyneel talks several times about the use of performance enhancing drugs & how they have affected the sport. He is adamant that Armstrong never took them, although I found it interesting that he talks at one point about how he deliberately had Armstrong lose a stage that he could have one,in part because "if we won again, so quickly, I could foresee...accusations of doping".
He also describes the immense amount of time & money that goes into finetuning the bikes & equipment: money is no object if it converts into a few precious seconds saved on the race.
This is an easy & very worthwhile read for anyone who's interestedin the Tour de France.
this is a great read; obssession with road cycling not required - By: it is about the bike, 23 Jun 2008 I read this book incredibly quickly. It is well written & interesting & takes a whole new tack on the lance armstrong years. I enjoyed the team car/ manager's eye view of the discovery team & Bruyneel's recollection of the minute strategies & adaptability that let discovery dominate the tour de france. The book is well balanced, insightful & offers glimpses into areas of professional cycling not really covered elsewhere. Basic functional explanations make this book accessible to non cycling obsessives without slowing down more avid supporters.
