Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás (born 16 October 1959 in

Torrelavega Torrelavega ( Asturian: ''Torlavega'') is a municipality and important industrial and commercial hub in the single province Autonomous Community of Cantabria, northern Spain. It is situated roughly 8 kilometres from the Cantabrian Coast and 27.5 ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

) is the former team manager of one of the most successful

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

professional

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The ...

teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interd ...

, first called

Team ONCE ONCE cycling team, () also known as Liberty Seguros, Liberty Seguros–Würth and in succession in its final year, Astana–Würth and Astana was a Spanish cycling team. It road bicycle racing, competed in the Union Cycliste Internationale, UCI U ...

, then

Liberty Seguros-Würth ONCE cycling team, () also known as Liberty Seguros, Liberty Seguros–Würth and in succession in its final year, Astana–Würth and Astana was a Spanish cycling team. It road bicycle racing, competed in the Union Cycliste Internationale, UCI U ...

, Astana-Würth, and lastly Astana Team. Saiz was a hands-on manager and

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

. He consolidated his riders' training and hired staff to manage their coaching and racing. Despite not having a racing background, he nurtured ONCE to become one of the biggest teams. His riders included Frenchman

Laurent Jalabert Laurent Jalabert (born 30 November 1968) is a French former professional road racing cyclist, from 1989 to 2002. Affectionately known as ''"Jaja"'' (slang for a glass of wine; when he continued drinking wine as a professional, the nickname stuck ...

and

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

Alex Zülle; both dominated the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

, each winning the general and other classifications. In 1995 Jalabert achieved the

trifecta Trifecta A trifecta is a parimutuel bet placed on a horse race in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third, in the exact order. Known as a trifecta in the US and Australia, this is known as a tricast in ...

by winning the general classification along with the points and

King of the Mountains The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest ...

. Saiz's next riders included Spaniard

Abraham Olano Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970) is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced as a professional from 1992 to 2002. He won the UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race, World Road Championship in 1995 UCI ...

Igor González de Galdeano Igor González de Galdeano Aranzábal (born 1 November 1973) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer and most recently, the team manager of UCI ProTeam . Following a promising start to his career at Vitalicio Seguros, where he fin ...

and

Joseba Beloki Joseba Beloki Dorronsoro (born 12 August 1973) is a Spanish Basques, Basque former professional road bicycle racer. Tour successes Beloki turned professional in 1998 with , joined in 2000, and then in 2001. A strong climber in the high mount ...

. ONCE dominated

team time trial A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ...

s in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

. At the end of the 2003 ONCE discontinued sponsorship, saying penetration was 100% in Spain, meaning every Spaniard knew what ONCE was. Saiz brought Liberty Seguros (the Spanish branch of the US company

Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Insurance Company is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest Property insurance, property and Casualty insurance, casualty insurer in the world. It ranks 87th on the Fortune 100, ''Fortune'' 100 list of larges ...

) and

Würth The Würth Group (, ) is a worldwide wholesaler of fasteners, screws and screw accessories. Würth expanded its range and today offers a full range of business equipment for craft businesses in a kind of supermarket of its own. Würth offers dow ...

, a German assembly technology company to be co-sponsor.

Controversy

1998 - Festina affair

During the turmoil of the Festina affair during the

1998 Tour de France The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route t ...

Saiz withdrew the ONCE-Deutsche Bank team. On 17 June 1999 The organisers of the

1999 Tour de France The 1999 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 86th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Ant ...

took the unprecedented step of banning teams, team officials and individual riders in the aftermath of the Festina affair. This included both Saiz and Dr Nicolas Terrados team doctor of Team ONCE. The ban was in relation to the actions and behaviour of these teams and riders during the 1998 Tour when Saiz withdrew his riders and said: " havestuffed a finger up the Tour's arse".

Richard Virenque Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", ...

's lawyers depended on a clause in the UCI's rules, number 1.2.048, which says that tour organisers must say at least 30 days before a race whom they wished to admit. The Tour had not done so. The UCI also obliged the Tour to accept Saiz.

2006 - Operación Puerto

On 23 May 2006, Saiz was arrested in connection with the Operación Puerto scandals. He resigned and his company, Active Bay, was stripped of its ProTour license, which was awarded to the company backing Astana Team. Saiz was cleared of damaging public health and managed a restaurant and wedding catering business in his home region of Cantabria for several years. In August 2013, he expressed an interest in returning to cycling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saiz, Manolo 1959 births Living people People from Torrelavega Doping cases in cycling