Johan Bruyneel and his crazy schemes
Mike
When I read on Aprils Fool Day that Johan Bruyneel is planning to do
"something great" with
pro cycling – by breaking away from the UCI – I thought I would share
about something “great” Johan did to my own city of Albuquerque New
Mexico.
It's a long convoluted story - a morality tale even – full of
characters including Lance Armstrong that I don't have the ability,
time or energy to tell properly, but since every local newspaper and
major cycling news outlet neglected to even look into it, I guess I
should do my best to pass it on before Bruyneel tricks anyone else
into following his grandiose schemes.
The story - about what happens when you let an egomaniac like
Bruyneel pervert something simple – like building a tax-payer funded
municipal velodrome – is public knowledge and I'd personally be happy
to share my own hard drive full of evidence to any journalist or
investigator interested in pursuing it.
In 1998, some cyclists in Albuquerque New Mexico decided to purchase a
wooden velodrome - the Pan-Am Games velodrome - from Winnipeg Canada.
A local guy started a group - the Southwest Velodrome Association
(SVA) and raised about 100k from a local charity, the McHune
Foundation Charitable Trust from Santa Fe to ship it here.
According to local legend, newspaper reports, and local group ride
gossip, after the velodrome arrived, the guy - a local cat. 3 named
Jonathan Powell - spent the money leasing a kick-ass fast Audi,
promoting local parking lot crits with $50 entry fees and throwing
champagne cracking charity events. Money was really no object. This
was going to be world class.
In less than 18 months, the money disappeared.
Mr. Powell, when interviewed, said the money was spend in
administrative functions and the real problem was that the cycling
community of New Mexico were "lazy and cheap." He also claimed that
the other three members of the SVA board “invaded his home and stole
his computer to incriminate him for embezzlement.” The Albuquerque
Police Department and City of Rio Rancho City – who gave Powell over
60k the was raised from a “black tie velodrome benefit dinner ” -
investigated the alleged embezzlement and found nothing. Powell had
long moved to Arizona, where he sells used cars.
Ten years later the Winnipeg Pan-Am Veledrome was rotten and deserted
in the New Mexico Sun. Legend says it was eventually used as hardwood
floors in a fashionable house in the foothills of the Sandia
Mountains.
A few years later some more Albuquerque cyclists decided this was a
travesty and were determined to construct a truly world class
velodrome in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the country.
They were mostly lawyers and businessmen and commuters who had never
raced a road bike - much less on the track - in their entire lives.
This was going to be world class. Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel
were mentioned. That sealed the deal.
The Veloport Corporation had truly gigantic delusions: to make
Albuquerque the "cycling capital of the world" by building a cycling
mecca: a velodrome, a crit course, a BMX course, a human performance
lab, sports doctor offices and of course - a five course French
cuisine restaurant.
This was going to cost money, and the Veloport Corporation was good at
raising money, the president – Charlie Ovis – was manager of the local
Wachovia Bank, and the rest of the board were local accountants and
lawyers. Champagne was again popping.
A two million dollar public bond was put on the next ballot and was
approved.
But the project – gigantic in scope and ridiculous in design – was
going to cost closer to ten million.
The Veloport Corporation and the city quickly started raising money.
The housing bubble was enormously expanded and tight, but not yet
popped, and developers like Mesa Del Sol were excited and local tax
payers were happy to shell out a few millions dollars to get kids on
track bikes and off crack.
Somehow a multi-million dollar publicly funded velodrome would keep
kids off crack AND bring millions a year in tourism dollars. The
specifics were vague, but Ovis and other Veloport members repeatedly
mentioned Bruyneel and a quasi-magical cycling academy that would
change Albuquerque – a city largely known as being the location of the
reality show COPS and the crack-based drama Breaking Bad – into the #1
cycling city in the world.
Phase one of the project, a dirt BMX with a metal roof. was
constructed near the local baseball park in 2007. Phase two and three
– the velodrome and French restaurant never happened.
This is where - if you are still reading – the story gets
interesting.
Despite the lack of a physical velodrome, Charlie Ovis – the local
banker who ran the Veloport Corp – decided to invite professional
cycling teams - Astana, Lipton and Navigators - to train in
Albuquerque. The weather was good, the altitude was high, and it would
be free, because local sponsors – like the Veloport Corp. would foot
the bill.
Ovis convinced Martin Chavez, the Albuquerque mayor who enjoyed
publicity, that track cycling was going to bring in millions of
tourist dollars. Yes, Albuquerque, a city that can't buy textbooks for
it's local schools. could get rich off professional TRACK cycling.
Together with the city, the Chamber of Commerse and some local
sponsors, Ovis and his team paid for a number of professional cycling
teams to come to the city and train in the winter. Astana,
Navigators, Lipton and the amateur Belgian based team CyclingCenter
all were paid to come to Albuquerque for a free, all-expenses paid
training camp.
These are all details. Let's get into the truly insane.
Ovis and the Veloport corporation decided they needed some big names
to build big things.
So the biggest names – Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel – were first
on the list.
Ovis and the city wanted to “attract JB to build a training facility
at Mesa Del Sol. It included participation from USA Cycling and
possible designation as an Olympic Training Center. JB came to
Albuquerque and agreed to terms with the State to build the center.
Contracts were drawn up and were in the process of being signed. Two
weeks later, Discovery announced the team was folding. The Training
Center was put on hold and JB went to Astana.”
Mesa Del Sol, a gigantic “city” that is really just a sprawling piece
of empty undeveloped land on the side of Albuquerque, which is already
fifty miles wide would be a “cycling city” with a Johan Bruyneel
Cycling University, funded by the State of New Mexico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wouXxOFPp0
Bruyneel and Ovis and the Veloport corporation, consisting of some of
the ponzi scheme businessmen and finest ambulance chasers the city of
Albuquerque had to offer, were going to make a city based on cycling,
in a poor city that exemplifies everything that is wrong with American
urban sprawl.
Bruyneel, Ovis and the Veloport Corporation convinced the city to wait
to build the new velodrome until Bruyneel properly could rule over his
desert “cycling city.” The actual VELOPORT, next to the baseball park,
is a nice BMX track packed with kids everyday. The velodrome and the
French restaurant – with a higher cost of 20 million bucks – was
nothing in 2007 but a little more substantial after the housing bubble
exploded never got built.
Eight million dollars in New Mexico taxpayer money, that was assigned
to build a “veloport” velodrome project was never constructed because
Johan Bruyneel wanted to start a publicly funded “cycling university”
in one of the poorest states in the county.
Long story short:
The Albuquerque velodrome, that was paid for by a public tax bond, was
never built because they (Bruyneel, the Veloprt Corp, Mesa Del Sol and
Mayor Chavez) wanted to wait to build it at Johan Bruyneel's own
cycling university in a “new city” called Mesa Del Sol:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_del_Sol
Here is Bruyneel speaking to a Belgian newspaper on his cycling city:
http://forum.index.hu/Article/viewArticle?a=74829949&t=9005529
Tax return, showing 60k to Bernard Moerman, for hotel rooms that were
supplied for free by a local sponsor:
http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/showVals.php?ft=bmf&ein=203727741
I have much more on Johan, the Veloport, and how they – along with the
city of Albuquerque - swindled the taxpayers into paying Bernard
Moerman, Johan's childhood friend and owner of CyclingCenter.com, for
training camps in Albuquerque.
Again, ROCK STAR Bruyneel in front on New Mexico tax payers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wouXxOFPp0
Mike
this info, you can put the pieces together from a sad collection of
press releases
There are a lot of liars in this story, from the city to the Veloport
Corporation - Ovis stated that Bruyneel dropped the project with Mesa
Del Sol because Discovery folded,
but the fact is he STARTED the "Mesa Del Sol Johan Bruyneel Cycling
Academy Project" because he lost his job at Discovery, as shown here
in the Belgian newspaper article:
---------------
How does a Kazakh team obtain training camp in the American
Albuquerque?
"I am already there longer. In Albuquerque, they are working to design
a new city. Mesa del Sol. with 35,000 new homes for 100,000 people.
Centrally comes the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy, funded by the
State of New Mexico. This should become the College for the American
cycling talent. It must be finished sometime next year."
I have stopped (being team manager). Then still very much on the high
point.
-----------------------------------------------------
Ovis, is also listed as the US Director of the Johan Bruyneel Cycling
Academy.
His home is the mailing address.
Albuquerque tax payers paid over ten million bucks for a track that
was stalled so Johan could insert it into a housing development that
was "green" and cycling friendly. When the housing market dropped,
Mesa Del Sol decided not to build 100,000+ 300k homes and the project
died.
The money for the velodrome was used for other projects, but a great
deal of it was wasted like most of the money that disappeared in the
Albuquerque velodrome saga, into the personal expenses of the
bigwigs,
including
"This is so directly in line with my economic development plan to have
Albuquerque become a center for cycling, a sport that is very popular
here," said Mayor Chavez, who also announced that David Chauner,
president and CEO of race promoter Threshold Sports has been hired to
help the city plan and develop the project.
Chauner was paid to "consult" on the delusional project:
TEN MILLION FOR VELEDROME:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/velodrome-for-albuquerque
Here is a local story, completely wrong, the plan in the bond was for
a NEW CONCRETE veledrome.
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/politics_krqe_albuquerque_bike_raceway_trashed_voted_money_spent_20095202355
That is all, at the very least, the saga of a poor city with a small
cycling community trying to build a "world class" velodrome, raising
and spending over ten million bucks, and then creating a tiny dirt BMX
track has to be seen as funny or sad/tragic - something. The fact that
not a single news organization ever even looked into a ten million
dollar swindle, kind makes me want to start my own velodrome, get
drunk on free champagne, cut a bunch of ribbons, hang out with a bunch
of pro cyclists and then blame the tax payers for not raising enough
money...I mean only ten million.
I used to race at Hellyer, I mean a track, a fence, some bleachers, a
port-o-pottie - and that was right outside San Francisco - Albuquerque
wanted to compete with Ghent in promoting TRACK RACING? Who are these
delusional retards.
Fingers tired, mind getting bored,
Mike
Simply Fred
> When I read on Aprils Fool Day that Johan Bruyneel is planning to do
> "something great" with
> pro cycling – by breaking away from the UCI – I thought I would share
> about something “great” Johan did to my own city of Albuquerque New
> Mexico.
I hear Bruyneel and Armstrong and Weisel were in cahoots with Madoff
(Cahoots may or may not be be a town in New Mexico or New Italy).
Mike
> (Cahoots may or may not be be a town in New Mexico or New Italy).
Chauner was involved, made some money consulting, Lance came to Gila
for Bruyneel. Before the housing bubble Bruyneel claimed Mesa Del Sol
would have 350,000 homes, each costing 300k, in a city that currently
has 500,000 people and the average home price is 160k.
So yes, this was classic Ponzi scheme action going on, promising
things that to any rational human being is just ridiculous.
The cycling university - in a city that is raising tuition at UNM,
which is a third tier public university where I am a proud alumni -
would be funded by the state - somehow....?
Ten million was raised and I personally saw every pro in the book ride
through this city, I didn't understand it then, and I don't understand
it now. A dozen doped up Kazakhs getting paid to train in
Albuquerque.
I wanted that velodrome, we paid for it and I'd like to ask Bruyneel
where the hell it went.
Again, I expect there to be crickets chirping and Fred's yawning, but
if any actual journalist wanted to actually investigate this story I'm
sure they would be the next Woodward and/or Bernstein and read by
literally DOZENS of interested readers.
Davey Crockett
| A dozen doped up Kazakhs getting paid to train in
| Albuquerque.
Vino don't dope
--
Davey Crockett
Flying the Flag of the English
The Flag of Hengest and Horsa
http://usera.imagecave.com/daveycrockett/englishdragon.jpg
Carl Sundquist
>
> That is all, at the very least, the saga of a poor city with a small
> cycling community trying to build a "world class" velodrome, raising
> and spending over ten million bucks, and then creating a tiny dirt BMX
> track has to be seen as funny or sad/tragic - something. The fact that
> not a single news organization ever even looked into a ten million
> dollar swindle, kind makes me want to start my own velodrome, get
> drunk on free champagne, cut a bunch of ribbons, hang out with a bunch
> of pro cyclists and then blame the tax payers for not raising enough
> money...I mean only ten million.
> I used to race at Hellyer, I mean a track, a fence, some bleachers, a
> port-o-pottie - and that was right outside San Francisco - Albuquerque
> wanted to compete with Ghent in promoting TRACK RACING? Who are these
> delusional retards.
> Fingers tired, mind getting bored,
> Mike
I thought that the basis for buying the PanAm track was to develop
pari-mutuel keirin racing in NM and that it had gotten even as far as
being passed by the NM state legislature. Considering casinos on
sovereign Indian land and the completely foreign (no pun intended)
concept of keirin racing to New Mexicans, it didn't seem to be a well
thought out plan.
Fred
>Considering casinos on
> sovereign Indian land and the completely foreign (no pun intended)
> concept of keirin racing to New Mexicans, it didn't seem to be a well
> thought out plan.
Most plans aren't well thought out.
Fred
Mike
-----------------------
Carl,
The gambling casino people are a different branch, still working on a
velodrome for this purpose, and
separate from the SVA pan-am track and then the eventual
city funded velodrome, which cost taxpayers ten million, but was never
built.
The most expensive velodrome never built.
The money was spent on Bruyneel training camps.