Noval rages at the Hog & says "he's lost control of team" & team situation is "bad" !

[TRDean]

Noval's the harmless, immature, little kid that didn't get his way. About on the same level of the OP.

A little kid like you, or maybe even LA!!!

Your pacifier is on the floor buddy!

 

[pmcg76]

So Noval was right all along then, it was Bruyneels fault the camp was split and that was all due to a rider coming back thinking he could win.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Pretty interesting after today's spat between AC and Lance, looking back on this old thread and Noval's comments form a month ago.

I doubt there will be another race this year where JB is in the Astana team car when Contador, Noval, Hernandez, Paulinho, or Navarro are on the road. Possibly not Zubeldia as well.

 

[richwagmn]

Pretty interesting after today's spat between AC and Lance, looking back on this old thread and Noval's comments form a month ago.

I doubt there will be another race this year where JB is in the Astana team car when Contador, Noval, Hernandez, Paulinho, or Navarro are on the road. Possibly not Zubeldia as well.

I was just wondering about that today. Will Bruyneel be anywhere near AC for the rest of his races this year?

Maybe JB will head to Leadville so he can cheer on LA in the Leadville 100.

 

[Publicus]

Pretty interesting after today's spat between AC and Lance, looking back on this old thread and Noval's comments form a month ago.

I doubt there will be another race this year where JB is in the Astana team car when Contador, Noval, Hernandez, Paulinho, or Navarro are on the road. Possibly not Zubeldia as well.

I was wrong to chalk his comments up to sour grapes. He was speaking honestly on the subject.

 

[thehog]

I was wrong to chalk his comments up to sour grapes. He was speaking honestly on the subject.

Its ok. Most make the same mistake on this forum.

 

[racerralph]

Oh and as to Noval, it seems to me that when a guy speaks out like that, often as not they are as much of the cancer as the cancer of which they speak.

That's just it. Does it seem to you that if a doctor diagnoses a cancer, he is as much a cancer as the cancer itself????

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Well, the thing to remember is that this is a team. Not just one guy. A team with an overall leader (Bruyneel). Considering what has now transpired, it doesn't seem this can be heaped on Noval, or even Lance or Contador for that matter. It's become obvious that as a team they are...well, no team at all. If anyone is to blame, for lack of a better word, it's JB because he should have been able to keep this under wraps, and keep the communication level strong amongst the players. That's his job, his responsibility. Even if someone like Noval (or anyone else) speaks out, it's his job to keep them in check - whether that be silenced, placated, punished, coddled, etc. Whatever works. Great managers in sports across the world do this all the time. It's part of their job.

Now, it seems as though the team will be completely split the rest of the season. Contador and his "team" riding probably under the leadership of Alain Gallopin, or possibly Sean Yates or Dirk Demol will now head to the Vuelta. And the other "team" of Lance, Levi, Horner, Popo, etc. riding under Bruyneel.

What a mess.

 

[Azdak6]

Well, the thing to remember is that this is a team. Not just one guy. A team with an overall leader (Bruyneel). Considering what has now transpired, it doesn't seem this can be heaped on Noval, or even Lance or Contador for that matter. It's become obvious that as a team they are...well, no team at all. If anyone is to blame, for lack of a better word, it's JB because he should have been able to keep this under wraps, and keep the communication level strong amongst the players. That's his job, his responsibility. Even if someone like Noval (or anyone else) speaks out, it's his job to keep them in check - whether that be silenced, placated, punished, coddled, etc. Whatever works. Great managers in sports across the world do this all the time. It's part of their job.

Now, it seems as though the team will be completely split the rest of the season. Contador and his "team" riding probably under the leadership of Alain Gallopin, or possibly Sean Yates or Dirk Demol will now head to the Vuelta. And the other "team" of Lance, Levi, Horner, Popo, etc. riding under Bruyneel.

What a mess.

How would you like to be a Kazakh businessman who just ponied up couple of $mill as a sponsor to allow the team to finish the year?

 

[issoisso]

At this point I keep thinking back to Paulinho's blog a couple of weeks ago. He had just one sentence on this subject:

"I'm so, so very tired".

 

[thehog]

At this point I keep thinking back to Paulinho's blog a couple of weeks ago. He had just one sentence on this subject:

"I'm so, so very tired".

Armstrong is still at it:

"There is no possibility of this happening. I have had no contact with Bruyneel. It is only a strategy to cause Contador to lose next year" said Giovanni Lombardi, personal agent of the two brothers to L'Equipe. . . . "Andy has seen clearly everything that Alberto Contador lived through in this year's Tour and nobody can imagine that he would willingly embroil himself in all that with the ambitions he has for next year, " said Lombardi.

 

[Anonymous]

Armstrong is still at it:

"There is no possibility of this happening. I have had no contact with Bruyneel. It is only a strategy to cause Contador to lose next year" said Giovanni Lombardi, personal agent of the two brothers to L'Equipe. . . . "Andy has seen clearly everything that Alberto Contador lived through in this year's Tour and nobody can imagine that he would willingly embroil himself in all that with the ambitions he has for next year, " said Lombardi.

Smart guy that Andy Schleck.

 

[cromagnon]

I found Noval's comments unsettling because I culturally as a Brit take a dislike to anyone speaking out when things should be kept "in-house", but I also know about Noval he is not a trouble maker and he has the straight talking character typical of the small hardworking mining communities where he is from.

I can say the situation must have been quite bad for him to spill his guts - even if what he said was purely a response to a journalists and their incessant questioning that then comes out as a prepared "statement" - as if Noval called a press conference beforehand (he might have done but I would wager he was being harassed by the spanish press as to why he wasn't going to the tour and questions about Contador etc etc).

 

[issoisso]

even if what he said was purely a response to a journalists and their incessant questioning that then comes out as a prepared "statement" - as if Noval called a press conference beforehand (he might have done but I would wager he was being harassed by the spanish press as to why he wasn't going to the tour and questions about Contador etc etc).

For what it's worth: It was on a sports talk TV show where he was the guest

 

[**Uru**]

You people must think a DS is to be a demi-god or something. Astana as a team has been threatened by lack of funds from February when the Khazak sponsors stopped payment. JB had to spend a lot of his time simply trying to get the funding to continue. Add to that a former champ and a current champ wanting to ride for the win of the biggest race of the year, of course there would be tension. Also, with so many strong riders, there would also be some who would not be chosen for the big race (ie Noval, Horner).

I seriously doubt any DS would have been able to handle the situation any better. With that much talent, the press would have hounded any other DS and his or her riders for quotes. They would have looked for stories and printed gossip. The situation required a balancing act, and that is exactly what JB did.

The winning is not simply a case of JB happening to have talented riders. T-Mobile had talent, CSC/Saxo has talent. If he always does the same tactics, why is it that the other teams cannot counter them? JB is not another Barry Switzer (who won a single super bowl with the Dallas Cowboys while coaching Jimmy Johnson's former team).

 

[cromagnon]

Astana as a team has been threatened by lack of funds from February when the Khazak sponsors stopped payment. JB had to spend a lot of his time simply trying to get the funding to continue.

That explains it

 

[TrapperJohn]

Let's see - Noval wasn't chosen for the Tour team, didn't get an invite to JB's new team... surely that doesn't color his opinion?

And it now appears that the funding issues were related to Vino. JB didn't want him back, Vino had words with the sponsors, the money started drying up. Deal struck - JB does the Tour and then leaves, Vino comes back. Fine print: most of the good riders go with JB, AC goes off by himself, Vino has the team back, with an empty bus. Oh, he has Noval to ride for him...

 

[Oldman]

Let's see - Noval wasn't chosen for the Tour team, didn't get an invite to JB's new team... surely that doesn't color his opinion?

And it now appears that the funding issues were related to Vino. JB didn't want him back, Vino had words with the sponsors, the money started drying up. Deal struck - JB does the Tour and then leaves, Vino comes back. Fine print: most of the good riders go with JB, AC goes off by himself, Vino has the team back, with an empty bus. Oh, he has Noval to ride for him...

Seems like the logical scenario, doesn't it? It kind of let's the Kaz sponsors off the hook for expensive talent, too. Their not pumping as much expensive oil as they used to.

 

[peloton]

Yesterday, Tour reject Benjamin Noval not only weighed in with one of his own but also offered the most tantalizing snapshot yet of what’s really going on at Astana.

"This year, the atmosphere in the team is really bad,” Noval told a Spanish radio station on Friday. “It’s bad because of Johan Bruyneel, because he hasn’t known how to manage the team. He’s lost control of the relationship between Alberto and Lance and with the rest of the riders… If there are clans in the team it’s his fault. He knows that, as well, because I’ve said it to his face.”

Why is Zubeldia in this picture?

 

[VeloFidelis]

The problem with Bruyneel is that he, like Armstrong, is a one trick pony. If you posit success in the sport on the number of times you win the Tour then he's up there. However, Guimard won the Tour 7 times (with Van Impe, Hinault & Fignon), the Vuelta twice, the Giro twice, Classics and week long Tours.

It's also important to remember that Contador's DSes for the Vuelta and Giro were Alain Gallopin and Sean Yates not Bruyneel. I think you'll find that anyone who rates Bruyneel is 'on the payroll' e.g. Liggett & Sherwenn

This is an astute assessment of the similarities in Bruyneel's and Guimard's records. But in fifteen years or so when the lengths of their respective careers is also similar, where do you think the advantage will lie?

 

[Eva Maria]

This is an astute assessment of the similarities in Bruyneel's and Guimard's records. But in fifteen years or so when the lengths of their respective careers is also similar, where do you think the advantage will lie?

As long as the Hog continues to stay at home with his lovely wife during the Classics, Giro, and Vuelta Guimard will continue to be on top.

 

[Boeing]

My spanish isn't good, but this roughly translates into "sour grapes". Noval you weren't selected for a variety of reasons. It's over buddy, let it go.

word my brother