The Cycliste Moderne, April 13, 2005

Kristin and I celebrated our fourteenth anniversary on April 12. We celebrated it with one sick child and me working late. Anyway, I am taking this opportunity to republish the following comentary on Bobby Julich's excellent start to the season. I appologize to the few that recieved this originally, however, it was only a few that did recieve it and I think Julich deserves more credit than he has been recieving. I will check back in with my Friday preview of the Amstel Gold Race, the one day classic held over thirty one hills in the vicinity of Maastricht, Netherlands.

Bobby J’s Success

It was not surprising that both CNNSI.com and ESPN.com picked up the wire service story about Lance Armstrong’s performance at Paris-Camembert on Tuesday, March 29. It was surprising that it was billed as “Tour tune-up.” Being a 6-time Tour champion and a superstar means that the American media gives Armstrong’s performances more attention as they try to divine whether he will or won’t win number 7.

However, the American press missed the real story of the weekend. Bobby Julich’s win at Criterium International unfortunately got no coverage. It is far and away an under appreciated accomplishment. After his win at Paris-Nice, Bobby J. got some press as the “other American” racing bikes in Europe. However, most of them focused on Julich’s failure to follow up on the promise of his 1998 podium finish at the Tour.

I have been critical of Julich’s performance during the years since 1998. I always believed that 1998 to a certain extent was about Julich being in the right place at the right time. However, I always felt he was unfairly criticized for his performances at Credit Agricole and Telekom thereafter. Bobby Julich was never as good as some people made him out to be, nor was he as bad as people thought. Julich unfortunately never found a team that fit his skills nor did he find any team that gave him the support he needed to perform. It is not enough to expect someone to be successful based upon past experience; they have to be given reasonable support to succeed in the future. Clearly, Telekom used Julich not as a potential GC leader but a water carrier and nothing more.

Certainly without Bjarne Riis, Julich would have retired by now. Julich’s success the last two years is certainly something that no one would have predicted after his utterly unproductive season in 2003 at Telekom. What has happened since in his career although surprising demonstrates the importance of a quality directeur sportif. How much more successful could Laurent Jalabert have been if he had ridden for someone other than Manolo Saiz for all those years? Had Jalabert ridden for Riis or Bruyneel, it is not improbable that he would have won the Tour at least once.

Poor management and poor team tactics have stunted some very promising careers over the last ten years. It is a reasonable question to ask: How much of Jan Ullrich’s win at the 1997 Tour was due to the tactical awareness and education he received riding with Riis? Tactical awareness has been something Ullrich has sadly lacked since Riis retired. Riis has done an excellent job getting the most out of his riders. Put people in a position to succeed, give them the preparation and support that they need and have reasonable expectations and you will likely have success. Riis’ tactics at the 2004 Paris-Nice demonstrated that an average team, with good tactical direction, can be very successful.

Bobby Julich is proof that when an athlete is put in a situation that neither gives them the opportunity to excel nor is expected to excel, that they likely will not. However, the right coach and the right situation can prolong a career in any setting.