Is Bruyneel on way out at Astana?
Johan Bruyneel said if Astana wants to get rid of him as team manager, they should tell him to his face.While a months-long struggle over financial problems apparently resolved for the team ahead of the start of the Tour, the imminent return of Alexander Vinokourov seems to be creating more turbulence.
A report in Friday’s edition of L’Equipe said that officials from the Kazakh-backed team plan to jettison the Belgian director and rebuild the team around Vinokourov and Spanish climber Alberto Contador.
“Personally, I prefer to not enter the polemic. I am concentrated on the Tour right now,” Bruyneel said Friday. “I am a professional, if they want to make a change, they should tell me to my face, but I never count on what I read in the press.”
Vinokourov and Bruyneel are apparently at loggerheads over his imminent return to cycling.
Vinokourov was the centerpiece of the creation of the Astana team in late 2006, which was cobbled together in the wake of the Operación Puerto that led to the exit of team sponsor Liberty Seguros.
Vinokourov was not directly implicated in the doping scandal, but the team was not allowed to race that year’s Tour. He won the Vuelta a España that fall, but was ejected from the 2007 Tour for blood doping.
His two-year ban for homologous blood doping ends July 24 and Vinokourov held a press conference in Monaco to declare that he plans on returning to Astana.
"I will resume my career as a professional on July 24," he said. "I cannot imagine being on a team other than Astana. The Kazakhstan cycling federation wants me on team, I am currently negotiating with Johan Bruyneel and I think we will reach agreement in the next week."
The team, however, nearly collapsed following Vinokourov’s suspension for homologous blood-doping at the 2007 Tour. The management shake-up that followed resulted in Bruyneel taking over the team soon after his former sponsor, the U.S.-based Discovery Channel cable network left the sport.
Bruyneel revamped the team, signing a host of former Discovery Channel riders, including 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador, American Levi Leipheimer and, most recently, seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong.
Vinokourov suggested on Wednesday that Bruyneel has little choice but to respect the wishes of his Kazakh sponsors.
"This team was created for me and thanks to my efforts,” Vinokourov said. “I have served my suspension and I do not see why I could not return. If Bruyneel does not want me, it will be Bruyneel who is leaving the team."
Bruyneel, however, defended his record at the Astana squad.
“When I came to this team in 2007, there were a lot of problems. Almost everyone in cycling wanted this team to disappear,” Bruyneel said. “This was a great challenge to turn around this team. We did some big work in 2008; we turned this team into a team of prestige.”