We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind a Record-Setting Eight Tour de France Victories [Hardcover]

Johan Bruyneel (Author), Bill Strickland (Author), Lance Armstrong (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2008

On the tour and inside the mind of Johan Bruyneel, the winningest team leader in cycling history and the mastermind behind the success of the world’s most celebrated champion, Lance Armstrong

Johan Bruyneel knows what it takes to win. In 1998, this calculating Belgian and former professional cyclist looked a struggling rider and cancer survivor in the eye and said, “Look, if we’re going to ride the Tour, we might as well win.” In that powerful phrase a dynasty was born. With Bruyneel as his team director, Lance Armstrong seized a record seven straight Tour de France victories. In the meantime, Bruyneel innovated the sport of cycling and went on to prove he could win without his superstar -- in 2007 he took the Tour de France title with a young new team and a lot of nerve, sealing his place in sports history forever.
We Might as Well Win takes readers behind the scenes of this amazing nine-year journey through the Alps and the Pyrenees, revealing a radical recipe for winning that readers can adapt from the bike to the boardroom to life. We witness Bruyneel’s near-death crash and comeback as a rider. We are privy to the many ways he and Armstrong outsmarted their opponents. We listen in on the team’s race radios to hear the secret strategies that inspire greatness from a disparate team. We learn how to make sure "not winning" isn’t the same as "losing" as Bruyneel struggles to prove himself -- post-Armstrong -- with new riders, new strategies, and skeptics around every corner.
Whether mounting a difficult climb, or managing a team of thirty riders and forty support staff from a miniature car hurtling along narrow European roads, or looking a future legend in the eye and willing him to believe, Bruyneel is, and has always been, the consummate winner. Readers will relish this inside tour.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Takes readers behind the scenes, into the follow car, on the bike, up the mountains and against the clock. You have to lack a pulse not to be inspired" -- Robin Williams, Actor "Bruyneel has carved out a remarkable record of victory as a team director and his honest, behind-the-scenes stories show the way to success in cycling and in life itself" -- Eddy Merckx, Five-Times Tour De France Winner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

JOHAN BRUYNEEL is a former professional cyclist and was the team director, from 1999 to 2007, of the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, which later became the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. In that role, he won a record eight Tour de France victories (in nine years’ time), making him the "winningest" team director in the history of the sport. He is currently general manager of the Astana Cycling Team. Bruyneel lives in Spain and maintains a website at www.johanbruyneel.com.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (June 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618879374
• ISBN-13: 978-0618879373
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Surprised June 1, 2008

By Julie A. H.

Format:Hardcover

I have been a cycling fan for years. I particularly love the goings on of the professional peloton. The riders, the back stories, and, especially, the tactics.
When I heard Johan Bruyneel was writing a book, I thought it would be more directed towards business professionals. A "how to get ahead" type mantra.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that that is not this book!

Johan Bruyneel writes a clean, well formed, clear picture of the professional peloton during his years as a rider, and then as DS for the US Postal and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling teams. In this book, you find that, as a rider, Johan was a looker. He kept a close eye on other riders in the peloton. He sized them up, if you will. In this book, Johan Bruyneel encapsulates what he "took in" while "checking out the scene", and candidly shares his findings with the reader.

He then explains why this is so important in the shaping of Lance Armstrong with specific race examples. The reader will understand that while, yes, luck does play a part in winning not only one Grand Tour, but 7 in a row, a well though out, meticulous game plan is the key to success.

This book takes you back to specific stages - specific climbs - and opens a window for you to see what actually was going on between Johan, Lance and the other 8 riders riding le Tour. It is like you were able to listen in on the race radio. Some pretty funny things are said on that radio!

You will find the meaning behind the thought "We Might As Well Win". You will also find that you can apply that to your own daily life - regardless of what you do.

Think Bobke, but more tactical, more precise.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I know Johan Bryuneel has hundreds, if not thousands more stories in his head. Should he ever decide to write them down, I will be one of many in line to get my copy.

So get your copy. Have a quick, easy read, and see if you knew what was really going on, say in the 1999 Tour de France Alpe d'Heuz stage. Was Armstrong spent? Was he giving it his all? Was he holding back? How much did he have left in his tank at the base of that climb?

Well, you will just have to read the book and find out.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Gives you a new appreciation for the tactics required to win a Tour de France July 27, 2008

By Julia Flyte TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

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 competed in the Tour de France himself before becoming the team director behind Lance Armstrong's seven wins and subsequently for Alberto Contadour in 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 and 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 and countless more insights into the world of cycling. I was reading this book during the 2008 Tour and it made me appreciate far more the way that team CSC were approaching the race and why they did some of the things that they did. Very, very interesting.

I didn't like the way that the book jumps about in 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 and Chapter 11 talks about the tour in 2000. While Bruyneel makes it clear at the outset that he hasn't set out to write an autobiography, the book would have been more interesting (and easy to follow) if he'd kept things in chronological order.

Bruyneel talks several times about the use of performance enhancing drugs and 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 won, in part because "if we won again, so quickly, I could foresee...accusations of doping".

He also describes the immense amount of time and money that goes into finetuning the bikes and equipment: money is no object if it converts into a few precious seconds saved on the race.

This is an easy and very interesting read for anyone who's interested in the Tour de France.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a book about cycling should be June 1, 2008

By Andrew Kent

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was very pleasantly surprised reading Johan Bruyneel's book "We Might As Well Win". It could have been an indulgent, sloppy mess. Instead, it is a crisp, well-written, multi-layered, fun, and insightful book that provides equal parts insights into Lance, insights into Johan, insights into races, and insights into winning. Bruyneel's personal strengths are projected through the writing, including a gentleman's restraint and a willingness to look reality squarely in the face.

An excellent cycling book, definitely gets a podium spot on my bookshelf!