There’s been signs of tension for some time, as well as public statements by both the Scheck brothers and Johan Bruyneel himself confirming friction, but the latter has said that all parties need to learn to work together. The duration of the Belgian’s contract was known to few people before now but, in an interview with Sporza, he has confirmed that he and the Schlecks are bound to work together for a further two and a half years.
“We all have a contract till the end of 2014, so when this year's Tour is done, there's still the Tours of 2013 and 2014,” Bruyneel said in a video interview with Sporza.
The Schleck brothers signed for the Leopard Trek team structure prior to the start of last season, and went on to take second and third in the Tour de France. Bruyneel was running the rival RadioShack team, but financial shortcomings facing both teams led to an amalgamation of sorts and the creation of a Luxembourg-based RadioShack Nissan team.
As was the case with the BMC Racing Team, many predicted that the squad would dominate the calendar this year. That hasn’t happened. Thus far, the team has clocked up just three wins in the first five months of the year; Fabian Cancellara’s Strade Bianche and stage seven success in Tirreno-Adriatico, plus the overall victory secured Sunday by Jakob Fuglsang in the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg.
The team has been held back by Cancellara’s bad crash in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, which left him with a quadruple fracture to his collarbone, plus the injury which ruled Fuglsang out of the Giro. Franck Schleck filled his place at short notice, but crashed during the race. He eventually dropped out and this led to criticism from Bruyneel, plus a strong response from Schleck.
Asked about the tension and whether both had acted correctly, Bruyneel gave his side of things. “When we started this project, everybody said we were a super team, we a lot of big names together and a big budget. The expectations were that we'd dominate the whole cycling calendar, but at the end of month of May, I can only assess that we reaped very little,” he said. “Two victories by Cancellara and the rest [won] nothing. We had a few podium finishes though, we suffered setbacks, not meant as an excuse, or not entirely as an excuse at least, so, generally speaking, I found it necessary to express my opinion.”
Andy Schleck commented on this on Sunday, saying that while Bruyneel is entitled to communicate his concerns to the riders, that he considered it wrong that the Belgian would do so through the press, rather than speaking behind closed doors to his riders and thus preventing public insight to the issues facing the team.
“There's been certain people who have advised me not to do so in the media, but well, I can't keep up appearances,” he asserted. “When people interview me and ask me how the situation is with/within the team, all I can say that's not to our satisfaction. Above all, I wanted to express that and hopefully, certain men who are responsible for the results - we got five or six of those men - pick up on it and act to it.
“When they're critical towards my public criticism because they feel maligned, well, I can live with that if they act on it and it benefits the team in the end.”
Bruyneel worked with Lance Armstrong during his successful Tour run and also headed teams when Alberto Contador took the 2007 and 2009 editions of the same race. He said that things ran smoothly with those riders, but that there were also tough years such as 2006, 2010 and 2011 when his campaigns were less straightforward. 2012 has clearly been that way, at least up until this point.
He is unapologetic about putting pressure on the riders to achieve. “I think you gotto be tough/hard sometimes. Look, I've been hard on them, have expressed my criticism, but that doesn't mean we can't sit at the table the next day and discuss it, look forward and focus ourselves at the positive aspects of the situation,” he said.
“Sometimes hard words are needed. I've never refrained myself towards anybody and I think that everybody who's mentally strong draws positive lessons from that.”
Time will tell how successful the tactic will be. As Bruyneel himself admits, it will be complicated for Andy Schleck to win this year’s Tour due to the amount of time trialing; he states that the rider and the team must take a very aggressive approach to try to gain time. However he adds that he believes the rider will win at least one edition in the next three years.
Whether that is return enough for team owner Flavio Becca remains to be seen.