In his column to Dutch paper De Telegraaf Johan Bruyneel explained why he is leaving Astana after two years with the Kazakh team. The return of Alexander Vinokourov after a two-year doping suspension was too much for the Belgian.
“When I started I made it clear that I didn’t want Vinokourov in the team. His press conference before the Tour was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.”
In addition to the Vinokourov crisis there were the financial troubles. “From April to the Tour we weren’t paid and that was embarrassing.” Bruyneel admitted that monetary problems were quite common. “Already in 2008 we had problems, but I was able to keep this away from the public.”
Bruyneel was wondering about the direction that Astana is heading. “The fact that they had four managers in four years indicates that something is wrong.”
Bruyneel will leave the team December 31, 2009 but he doesn’t look back just in anger. “From a sporting point of view we did great. Besides the overall in the Vuelta [2008] and the Tour [2009], we had many great wins.” He also didn’t want to put down the Kazakh people in general for derailing what he called and otherwise “very nice project.
“Especially the sports minister put in an effort in a very positive way. Really, there were only two or three people who made a lot of trouble.” Bruyneel started having physical trouble. “That’s not worth it.”