Walter Goodefroot Interview with L'Equipe

limerickman

Today, Sean Kelly detailed an interview which Walter "Forty Shades of Green"
Goodefroot gave to L'Equipe on Eurosport today.

Kelly said that WG was having a go at JU about his attitude and his training.
WG told L'Equipe that Audi/Volkswagen during winter had offered TMO access
to wind tunnels for ITT aerodynamic training.
WG ordered his team to take up this invitation.
Everyone at TMO - except JU availed of this.
JU told TMO management that he was happy with his position on the bike and that he would not have learned anything more by going to these tests.

WG then went on to have a go at JU about how he (JU) was not interested
in making progress.
WG had tried to persuade JU that LA is willing to try to get an advantage possible.
JU on the other hand is not open to new ideas or training.

WG then went on to say that Pevenage has had full access to JU throughout
this TDF and the whole season as well.

Civil war - no doubt.

Jakebrake

Some more from this interview I believe .....

7/24/2004
T-Mobile boss Walter Godefroot wonders if he might have been better building his team around Kloeden rather than Ullrich.

PICTURE BY TIM DE WAELE

In an interview with French daily sports newspaper L’Equipe on Friday, Walter Godefroot, manager of Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile squad, makes it clear that his team leader has not impressed him much in this year’s Tour.

But last year, when out of Godefroot’s hands for the first time in his professional career and riding instead with Rudy Pevenage at Bianchi, Ullrich came the closest he’s ever come to beating Lance Armstrong at the Tour, finishing second for the fifth time in his career, just 61 seconds down.

Back into the fold at T-Mobile this year, Ullrich – who won the Tour in 1997 – once again came out of the off-season 10 kilos heavier than his race weight, the problems of discipline that many thought had been ironed out through experience and maturity clearly still apparent.

“That’s something you’ll have to ask Pevenage about,” responded Godefroot, the whole interview in danger of being a non-event. “My responsibility is the team. It’s Pevenage you have to speak to about Ullrich’s training.

“I’d be lying if I said I was satisfied with Ullrich’s performance,” Godefroot was willing to say. “He was expected to be Armstrong’s main adversary, but he failed, and we haven’t even won a stage.”

With Ullrich’s team-mate Andreas Kloeden the highest-placed T-Mobile rider going into the penultimate stage – and having generally performed better in the mountains – Godefroot suggested that he might have preferred for the team to have ridden for Kloeden.

“It was necessary to make a choice, and I had to make a ‘commercial’ one,” Godefroot said. “At T-Mobile, the star is Jan Ullrich.”

Godefroot and Pevenage have never wanted to talk about the reasons that the two went their separate ways after working for many years together, with Pevenage as directeur sportif of the Telekom team, as it was known before becoming T-Mobile in 2004.

With Ullrich still working with Pevenage as his personal coach this year after the collapse of the Bianchi team after just one season, Godefroot confirmed that it made things difficult.

“Pevenage can go into Ullrich’s hotel room whenever he wants to talk about strategies, and then they talk to Mario Kummer [T-Mobile directeur sportif]. We have a kind of management agreement,” explained Godefroot. “Jan wanted Pevenage by his side, along with his own masseur, a physiotherapist, his brother as mechanic, and two riders of his choice on the team. For my part, I’ve had too many problems with Pevenage to have him back on my team. At 61, I’ve passed the age of compromise.”

But Godefroot seems clear about why Armstrong is so dominant, and Ullrich is not able to reach the same level. “At US Postal, it’s Armstrong who calls the shots. The others just follow,” Godefroot said. “If Ullrich doesn’t want to train in January, we just have to go with it. Some champions, like Armstrong, or [Joop] Zoetemelk before, live for their job. Jan rides the bike to live… If he can’t have the freedom to do what he wants to a certain extent in the winter, he wouldn’t be able to cope with the stress of competition. It’s a shame, because if you could put together Erik Zabel’s professionalism with Ullrich’s talent, we’d have Eddy Merckx.”

gntlmn

I think the problem is not that Jan is incapable of the discipline required to be a champion. I think the problem is that the coach who would be able to bring that forth from him is very rare and has not been found. He would be someone who did for the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan and company what Phil Jackson did. And that's to motivate them to go beyond themselves and think big.

Great coaches do best paired with just the right type of talent and psychological mind set. When the magic happens, often the coach thinks its him and is disappointed when he goes elsewhere only to lose. Likewise with the athletes, they often feel that they are the key ingredient. Champion teams are groups of people who bring out the best in each other as a group. When they break up that rare combination, often all parties suffer.

I think Jan has not been paired yet with the best group which will continually set the bar ever higher and keep each other mutually motivated to continue to win. It may be getting too late for Jan.

musette

Goodefrot is trying to deflect any responsibility for JU's poor performance onto JU and/or Pavenage. It's ridiculous; Goodfrot is as responsible as JU and more responsible than Pavenage. His ambiguity about whether he should have had Kloden as captain in hindsight is ridiculous. Even if he felt this ambiguity, he shouldn't publicly express it like this.

limerickman

It's a bit like you masquareding as an Ullrich fan.

I knew that your name rang a bell - you're the old Armstrong fan who used to post to the JU site.

limerickman

Jake,

This is indeed the interview.

civil war at Mobile ?
You bet ya'.

musette

I've indicated on this board I am a fan of both LA and JU -- that's not a mutually exclusive situation, you know. I find analysis of USPS strategy very interesting, and the LA/JU interaction interesting. What's wrong with that? Your quoted post almost suggests it's bad to be an LA fan.

It took you this long to recall, even when I stated in a thread I had argued that T-Mobile should exclude Zabel from the TdF team because he was a wasted space (an argument I had pursued on the prior site vigorously)?! I thought you knew from Day 1, since I do tend to post a lot about USPS/LA on the prior site and this one and since I have used the same username.

Obviously, to acknowledge that JU performed rather poorly in this year's TdF does not preclude a person from hoping JU had done better. To not acknowledge that is to be in denial, I am sad to suggest.

limerickman

Quite frankly - it was your endorsement of LA's behaviour re Simeoni that
made me suspicious - otherwise you had me fooled.
When I saw your post endorsing LA's behaviour - your name rang a bell.

musette

So you suffered through weeks of my continuing to dissect USPS tactics like I used to, highlighting the strengths of USPS (esp the mountain contingent) like I used to, supporting the deliberate choice of USPS teammates like I used to, and lamenting the inadequacies of Goodefrot and Pavenage like I used to -- only to be awakened by the Simeoni post?

limerickman

You claimed (as you did on the last site) that you were a JU fan.
As was pointed out to you on the last site - you appeared to be more interested in USPS than being merely a JU fan.
The comment that you made re LA's behaviour regarding Simeoni -
prompted me to recognise your nickname from a previous site.
I know recall, from that previous site, what you actual views are.

Bikerman2004

Why does it matter how hard Ullrich trains or prepares? If Armstrong is doping as you are convinced he is, then Ullrich doesn't stand a chance. Or maybe that year round training thing works. Hmmmmmm...................

meehs

UGH!!! I was reading this thread thinking: "Ahhh, a welcome break from all of the Armstrong/doping debate. C'mon, what do you say? Let's keep this thread in line and free of the doping debate, shall we?

So what's everyone's speculation as to the outcome of this "civil war" at T-Mobile? Will Goodefroot finally be sacked? Will Ullrich defect to another team? Does anyone know if there are other teams already courting Ullrich? I for one would love to see him get back on track while he still has a chance to do some winning.

Bikerman2004

[QUOTE=meehs]UGH!!! I was reading this thread thinking: "Ahhh, a welcome break from all of the Armstrong/doping debate. C'mon, what do you say? Let's keep this thread in line and free of the doping debate, shall we?


I would but Limerickman likes to post lots of articles that reflect negatively on Armstrong. So when he post something about Ullrich's training as an excuse for his 4th place finish, I can't help but see the hypocrisy of his doping agruments. If Ullrich's lack of training and conditioning keep him from winning the tour, then why can't Armstrongs year round training be the reason he wins?