Customer Reviews

We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind Eight Tour de France Victories

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Johan Bruyneel has many excellent stories to tell. He does so with a wonderfully unpretentious manner and a simple intelligence that is very refreshing. Kudos to the excellent writer, Bill Strickland with his smoothly moving prose that is always very clear. Together they make a great team creating an excellent book for anyone to enjoy. The serious racers really get a treat with excellent tactics made obvious.

I really enjoyed this book. It went over a lot of information that Lance didn't cover in his books. Johan has a great ability to describe the racing and keep the reader anxious for the next parts. It had some good insights into winning in life. Excellent book!

As I married into a cycling family, I slowly learned quite a bit about cycling and the madness that is "Le Tour". I fell in love with the riders, their personalities, the traditions, and even Phil Liggett. I was very surprised to find that I really enjoyed Johan's autobiographical account of his winning ways. I knew that he was intelligent, but the man has to be near genius. He toots his own horn slightly but honestly and that can be appreciated. I definitely recommend reading this book. It provided great insight into the man with the plan and the director of the team that should have been in France this July!

This is an outstanding book for the bicycling enthusiast. Lot's of inside information of the tactics goings on during major races,especially the Tour de France. Bruyneel is the man behind all(7)of the Lance Armstrong victories at the TdF. There is a ton of interesting stories that keep the book informative and entertaining throughout. The result is an inspirational work that naturally makes you want to clip in and head out for the open road. Since I only briefly recalled Johan's(he wasn't really a major player) racing days it was cool to hear about his roots in cycling. The touching story about his father, how he was a big time amateur and organizer of rides which allowed for Bruyneel to get his start and his tragic death was amazing. What was more amazing though was Bruyneel's tribute in his most trying of times while racing that allowed him to dig deep and pull off the unexpected. Although not the strongest of riders, by his own admission, Bruyneel had special vision while racing that allowed him to make valuable observations of the other teams which translated into tactics for his manager. These keen observations would not go unnoticed by a young Lance Armstrong who would later ask him to manage. The special relationship between Lance and Johan is discussed and how it all came to be when Johan was racing and Lance was an up and comer. Johan believes in Lance and maybe more importantly Lance believes in Johan. Bruyneel's innovative tactics are now part of the Lance Armstrong lore but make no doubt there is a man and method to the madness. As you know, assuming you are a cycling fan, the relationship between these two giants is not over as currently Bruyneel is manager for the Team Astana and Lance is currently riding the Giro de Italia and planing to ride the Tour de France. The title of this book should be an interesting concept for these two races considering how loaded the team is with stars like Levi, Horner, Contador and Armstrong. Anyway this is a great little book if you follow cycling because it reveals all the little things going on during the most memorable moments of the famous stages from the biggest races in the world. This is a highly recommended book for the cycling fan

Do you like to read about leadership in competition? This is an excellent story of how accepting one's own limitation combined with relentless pursuit of a greater goal than one's self will lead to success. Of course this success only comes with the acceptance (and enjoyment) of countless, repetitive struggling efforts to improve. If you aspire to improving your competitiveness, be it professional or at the local amateur level, than this story will be a role model for you.

I expected this book to be pretty good, but it exceeded my expectations. It is a very enjoyable, well written, and a quick read. I wish it were twice as long. If you followed the Postal and Discovery Channel teams in years past, you will definitely love this book. Many good stories and insights.

Johan Bruyneel gives a picture of how one man can make all the difference in cycling. His insight and knowledge really gives an understanding of how USPS and Discovery Channel Cycling Teams were so dominant. This book is a must read for any fans of cycling. I have read all the books on Lance and USPS, but this book brings together how everything is put on the shoulders of the team director. Bruyneel is a master of painting a picture that makes you feel part of the action.

I recommend this book for anyone who loves cycling and wants to know the "how" to being successful.