Manolo Saiz - Why the loyalty?

iainf72

Bella Jorg said nice things about him, as do various others. Sastre was asked about him and his answer is quite interesting.

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/arti ... r-securing

Why does he inspire such intense loyalty? Is it because they don't want him to start doing some mum-cussing?

vermooten

It could be much simpler - even though us fans don't like Saiz because of his doping practices, he was still an inspirational manager - as Sastre describes in the interview.

What's "mum-cussing"?

Kléber

It's a bit like those doorstep interviews of people who live next to someone who gets exposed as a terrorist/murderer etc: "he was always a nice guy" say the neighbours etc.

He's been a good manager, a good tactician. He's not an ex-rider with the "I did this 40 years ago, so it'll be good for you too" attitude. Yes, he ran a doping programme but so did many other managers who happily run teams today.

Still, arguably his creation of the ONCE "Armada" was one of the greatest leaps in the arms race of cycling. The sight of the yellow peril shredding up races in February, of Jaja-le-sprinter metamorphosing into Jaja-el-ganador-de-la-Vuelta, was a prime cause of Festina, of Telekom and many other teams were doping was a way of life.

LangerDan

If Sastre starts bitching about managers with a fairly dodgy past, the next CSC staff meeting is likely to be a fairly fraught affair.