Johan Bruyneel attracts a placing parallel between his previous US Postal group and Jumbo-Visma, in a brand new interview.
The former Belgian rider and supervisor explains that if he may change something concerning the previous, he would gladly take away the conceitedness from himself and the US Postal group.
“We paid the price for that. As a winning team, we were so focused on the Tour that we lived in a bubble that we created ourselves. We won the Tour once and then twice. And from then on there was never a plan B. We had to win. Not winning was not an option. ”
“Especially our American sponsors steered us in that direction. I went along with that. We had to put aside everything that would distract us from winning”, says Bruyneel. “We had conflicts with the media, media meant distraction. That didn’t fit our tunnel vision. We became arrogant. Because we won and kept winning, we naturally got into a position where no one wanted to see that happen again. Jumbo-Visma will also be in such a situation.”
The Belgian doesn’t insinuate something with this, he makes clear a little bit later within the interview.
“In the past they have all played by the same rules. So it was in every generation: Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, LeMond, Indurain, Pantani, Armstrong. Today I think doping is as good as gone. If anything, it’s minor. Nothing that gives a five or ten percent advantage. Everyone plays by the same rules. If Jumbo-Visma now specializes in altitude training, sophisticated nutrition, training, recovery, aerodynamics, then everyone is trying to get to the same height. That’s always the case, that’s part of competition.”
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