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

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We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind a Record-Setting Eight Tour de France Victories ReviewI 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.
We Might As Well Win: On the Road to Success with the Mastermind Behind a Record-Setting Eight Tour de France Victories OverviewOn 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 ArmstrongJohan 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.

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John Wilcockson's World of Cycling Review

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John Wilcockson's World of Cycling ReviewReview of "John Wilcockson's World of Cycling" from Boulder Planet, Colorado
by Rob Coppolillo
Thirty Tours de France sounds like a long career in cycling, but Boulderite and world-renowned journalist John Wilcockson finds his best form in his sixth and latest book, John Wilcockson's World of Cycling. On the verge of another hectic season of travel and race coverage, the prolific writer will cover his thirtieth Tour this summer and has reported on every major road cycling event, mountain biking and track racing in a career dating from the mid-Sixties. The English-born Wilcockson was a successful amateur cyclist as a young man, then found a comfortable career in civil engineering. When he chose to pursue a life covering bike racing, he says, "My family was shocked, they thought I was crazy! I had prospects of a good career in engineering, but I can't say I've had a dull day in 30 years." Whatever prospects he left in engineering, he has seems to have equaled in his writing. He has covered cycling for the London Times, the Sunday Times in London, Winning, several other English publications and now co-owns a magazine based in Boulder, VeloNews. Sports journalism, as a genre, sometimes conceals the extent of a writer's quality. With deadlines, space constraints and a narrower audience, the final product loses a measure of breadth. Wilcockson's World of Cycling will surprise his fans expecting mere reportage. The work is as much travel writing as journalism, showcasing the depth of Wilcockson's talent and his keen eye for detail. "I'm a travel buff in many ways...I walk around places to see more than meets the eye. That's one of the fun things about cycling, it's not a stadium sport. The geography, the climate, these guys are racing in the elements," he explains. Early in the book, in a charming description of the 1969 Tour of Sardinia, we are treated to the particulars of the bicycle race, but the event doesn't end at the finish line. As Wilcockson departs the island on a ferry, he recalls, "...a black-clad mamma...was arguing-as only Italians can...Then the scene rapidly became quiet, dark and deserted...the final zephyr blowing the dockside clean, sending an odd newspaper and dust swirling into the cold, black water." World of Cycling covers nearly every facet of bicycle racing, from the Olympic road race, to the Tour de France, a six-day track event and mountain bike world championships. Loyal Wilcockson readers will devour his authoritative race accounts, as usual, but discover widely expanded coverage. Any cycling fan remembers five-time Tour de France champion, Spaniard Miguel Indurain falling apart in 1996 Tour and it's here, only more of it, clearly chronicled kilometer by kilometer! Racers will also find lesser-known stories like Robert Millar's heart-breaking defeat in the 1985 Tour of Spain. The Scotsman Millar lost not because he faltered physically, but through the reproachable collusion of the Spanish teams in the race. No other English speaking journalist, and few in Europe, can capture and explain the subtlety and nuance of a bike race like Wilcockson. World of Cycling preserves the excitement, but adds details that might not otherwise escape the editor's cut of a race report. "I think for most journalists writing about cycling, it's a job, not a passion," he alleges. "It's more like writing about football or baseball in this country." His awareness of the nearly unseen forces at play in a race reveals Wilcockson's knowledge and love of the sport. In "Home is Our Hero," an account of the 1985 Nissan International Cycling Classic in Ireland, Wilcockson poetically describes the victory of native Sean Kelly, transporting readers to the lush, rural countryside, "The break's lead mounted...to 90 seconds at pretty Clonegall, where a farmer with a small white dog tucked inside his jacket were among the spectators watching the racers pour over a stone, hump-backed bridge spanning a fast-flowing salmon stream." There is no more respected cycling journalist working today, and with John Wilcockson's World of Cycling, Wilcockson leaves the realm of mere sport to script his name alongside the best adventure travel writers of our time like Theroux, Cahill and Krakauer. His unequaled descriptions of bicycle racing, coupled with his acute sense of place and sharp eye, make this a captivating read for not only cycling fans, but travelers, armchair adventurers and sports fans alike.John Wilcockson's World of Cycling OverviewJohn Wilcockson hasn't missed a Tour de France or other major bicycle race since 1968. This round-the-world excursion to the most challenging cycling events brings together more than 20 of his favorite stories, including the dramatic victories of Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong.

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Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer Review

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Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer ReviewThis book was originally published by Bicycle Books in San Francisco. I would hope that it would still be available, even though 5 years ago hardback copies were selling at chain bookstores for as little as $4 a copy. The Ritchie book is written not just from the perspective of bicycling history (although it is well-researched from that point of view), but as an important social history. In addition, it reminds us of the history of the development of transportation and how bicycles were eventually pushed out of the public vision of having right-of-way to being relegated to the closed track of the velodrome so they wouldn't get in the way of the growing automobile culture. Major Taylor's career is important in the history of racism and attempted and often effective exclusion of Blacks not just from racing opportunities, but from the subsequent business opportunities that followed on the heels of the age of the turn-of-the-century racers. The largest reason that Major Taylor died a pauper was because he was not allowed to participate on an equal level with White businessmen in the developing automobile industry, according to Ritchie's research. Turn of the century bicycle racers, as Ritchie points out, were instrumental in contributing to the design of the shock system and the use of pneumatic tires, among other features, of the emerging American automobile. They also were some of the large investors in the industry upon their retirement from active racing status. Taylor wanted to participate in the design process and applied to a university for formal education in engineering, but was denied access, despite his hard-won efforts, previous inventions in bicycle design and testing, and celebrity status. The fact that the man died early of a stroke and alienated from his family and community in the end can only speak of a man who, after putting out his entire life, had finally been broken by the pressure of living in a racist society. Yet, writing his autobiography and selling it door to door evokes the phoenix-like quality of many members of the Black community who survive and thrive in spite of great hardship, even in our present times.Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer Overview

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