CYCLING – Sports director of ONCE and Liberty Seguros training in the years 90-2000, Manolo Saiz returned, in an interview with the Spanish daily Alerta, during this troubled period.
Manolo Saiz, above all, he’s a hell of a character in the world of cycling. After creating the training OUNCE in 1989, the businessman from Cantabria, in the north of Spain, went through years of glory with his team. Four winners Tours of Spain, with Melchor Mauri (1991), Laurent Jalabert (1995) and Alex Zülle (1996 and 1997).
Whoever declared in 2001 in the columns of the World that cycling had become ” clean “, finally sees his world fall apart in 2006. Became Liberty Seguros in 2004, the Manolo Saiz team became the target of investigators in the anti-doping fight. Already shaken in 2005 by the positive EPO control of his foal Roberto Heras after a Vuelta that the latter had won, the Spanish sports director was arrested on June 23, 2006, during the last week of the Giro, as part of thePuerto case. At issue, a flagrant offense of purchasing prohibited substances. Fifteen days later, Saiz steers clear of cycling.
“I did not devote myself 100% to my family and my team. I regret “
Of this time, Manolo Saiz keeps a bitter taste. Very bitter. With, ultimately, many regrets. “This affair made me lonely. I was a brave man and that turned me into a coward. […] For example my children could have had other destinies. “, he admits. Still in the regrets department, Saiz, 60, deplores his involvement on the UCI Pro Tour Council, of which he was one of the instigators. “Since 1998, having traveled a lot to represent all the teams in the world, I haven’t devoted myself 100% to my family and my team. I regret. “
Finally, Manolo Saiz remained vague regarding the use (or not) of products banned for its runners. “They will have to answer that”, he said simply, clearing himself in the state of the art. Before ending in style. “I have always said it and will continue to do so throughout my life. My teams have been the cleanest in cycling. I will stop there. “
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