Brunel, Johan

Until the age of 25, Brunel did not achieve victories in prestigious races. In 1989, he won 2 stages on the Tour of Switzerland , after which he moved to Lotto-Superclub . In the debut season for the team, Johan first started in the monumental classics and the Tour de France , where at the 17th stage he lost only to Dmitry Konyshev . In the fall, he won the European Community Tour, later known as the Tour de l'Avenir . The following year, the Belgian excelled at the Frankfurt Grand Prix and became second in the Basque Country Tour . In the spring of 1992, he won the 12th stage of the Vuelta of Spain , and in the fall he won the Coppa Lament and the Grand Prix of Nations .

Brunel won the 6th, flat, stage of the Tour de France 1993 , and after 2 years he managed to develop success. He beat Miguel Indurein at the finish of the 7th stage of the Tour de France 1995 and put on a yellow T-shirt , although the Spaniard selected it in the butcher the next day. In September, Johan started in the first Vuelta of Spain, transferred from spring to autumn. Not gaining stage victories, he went up to the final podium, losing only to Laurent Jalaber and Abraham Olano in the overall standings. After this, Brunel’s career began to decline, he twice started on the Tour de France, but both times went in the middle of the race. In 1998, he announced his retirement.

Brunel did not leave because of cycling, as he was immediately invited to the post of sports director of the US Postal Service . The budget of the team was small, and it, in comparison with others, was considered poor. However, in Brunel's debut season, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the first time. This success attracted sponsors, as Armstrong was also considered a hero who defeated cancer . The American won the French super-race for a record 7 times in a row in 1999-2005. The riders of the team also won the rest of the Grand Tours: Roberto Eras won the Vuelta of Spain in 2003, and Paolo Savoldelli won the Giro d'Italia in 2005. In 2007, the promising driver Alberto Contador joined the team, who managed to win the Tour de France in July. At the end of the 2007 season, the team ceased to exist, and Brunel and Contador moved to Pro Team Astana .

In 2008, Contador was announced for Italian and Spanish stage races, and won both. The following season, he returned to the Tour de France and won again. In the same year, Armstrong decided to resume his career and returned under the leadership of the former director in Astana. At the end of the season, Lance and Brunel found sponsors to create a new American team, Team RadioShack . Experienced, but the age composition of the team failed to achieve high-profile victories; Armstrong repeatedly and finally announced his retirement in the winter of 2011. At the end of the summer, rumors appeared that the team would unite with the Luxembourg project Leopard Trek , which had problems finding sponsors. As a result, the combined team was named RadioShack-Nissan, Brunel became its general manager. In 2012, the team was not very successful, and in October Brunel was fired due to a doping scandal ^[1] .

After Armstrong completed his career in 2005, the first Tour de France was won by Floyd Landis , who played for US Postal in 2002-2004. His doping test gave a positive result, and he was stripped of the title. In 2010, Landis stated that he was the first to use dope while playing for US Postal on the advice of Brunel and Armstrong ^[2] . In 2011, Tyler Hamilton after disqualification and several years of denial admitted that he used doping. Until 2002, he advocated for US Postal, and now stated that he had seen Armstrong inject himself with illegal drugs ^[3] . The statements of these riders were not enough to bring charges, but the USADA launched an investigation.

In the summer of 2012, USADA announced that it had evidence of Armstrong doping. In October, the agency published a 1,000-page report that acknowledged the use of doping for fifteen US Postal riders ^[4] . The team was named the most complex, professional and successful doping system in the history of sports, and Brunel was its chief builder. It is noted that Brunel and the doctor from his former ONCE team were invited by Armstrong to US Postal instead of less accommodating, in terms of doping, director and doctor. Brunel personally monitored the use of prohibited means by the riders and persuaded the newcomers to start using them. Johan led the team of the infamous Dr. Michele Ferrari , a specialist in the effective use of doping ^[5] . After the publication of the report, Brunel was fired from RadioShack-Nissan (according to him, he left himself to participate in the trial). Not denial and not admitting the charges, the Belgian condemned USADA for violation of legal norms ^[6] .

• Racer profile on cyclingarchives.com
• Armstrong case. Johan Brunel