Saiz wants to come back to Pro land

iainf72

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2008/ ... saiz_sep08

He always makes me laugh when I see him.

GroupOfOne MkII

Hmmm well isn't Dave Brailsford in negotiations with an extremely well known former DS? Unless of course that Gianluigi Stanga...or Walter Goodefroot...

afx237vi

Wow, that interview - if you can even call it that - is weak as hell.

"I feel cheated by my own country. I feel I was 'sold out' to the cycling establishment. Undoubtedly I feel innocent. I know perfectly well that I am not guilty."

So shouldn't the next question be "well what were you doing in a Madrid restaurant handing over a suitcase full of cash to a doctor we now know was running one of the biggest doping programmes in the history of professional sport?"

But apparently not. We'll just continue praising his training techniques and talking up his comeback instead :roll:

Whoever conducted that interview should be ashamed to call themselves a journalist.

LangerDan

Saiz is probably in a small bedsit in Madrid, with no arse in his trousers and eating cold beans from a tin, looking at photos from the current races and thinking "Why shouldn't I return - I'm no worse than him. Or him. Or them." Not to mention the fact that no-one throws a foul-mouthed strop like Manuel.

Michael Ball should sign him up immediately.

iainf72

afx237vi wrote:

Whoever conducted that interview should be ashamed to call themselves a journalist.

I'm sorry. I did my best

Kléber

Wow, who wrote the interview, his mum? That's puff piece writing if I ever saw it. Almost no criticism and no explanation of why his riders won so much, except for team buses and fax machines.

IMO he's had his chance and he blew it. Inviting him back would be a disaster. Now there are some still in the job who should not be but because of a lack of evidence. There's every bit of evidence to suggest Saiz should not be allowed near any sports management role ever again.

iainf72

Saiz must feel like heaving everytime he see Riis.

But Jorg said he was an "honourable man" as well didn't he? Sastre also said nice things about him I believe.

So the sweaty mum-cussing fellow we usually see isn't what he's actually like?

aac

One of those days at work, so can't think straight. But with the changes in sponsorship, is Astana seen as being derived from the original ONCE team in any sense? Or were there any protour licence changeovers or whatever that effectively splits the teams up? I remember some problems in that Saiz owned the licence and it was a bit of a laugh trying to get it off him or something.

afx237vi

The current Astana is on its fourth incarnation at the moment.

First there was Saiz and Astana-Wurth, which was directly related to Liberty Seguros and ONCE before that.

Then OP happened and Vinokourov made a brief attempt at running the team with Saiz' old license.

Then Marc Biver came in and ran the team on a new license with new backroom staff.

Then after that went belly-up, Bruyneel took over with another licence. So the current Astana pretty much has no connection to Saiz' Astana.

LangerDan

The UCI Licence Commission formally withdrew Saiz' licence at the end of 2006.

iainf72

LangerDan wrote:

The UCI Licence Commission formally withdrew Saiz' licence at the end of 2006.

it probably went something like "Manalo are you sure you won't find a sponsor, we'd love to keep you on board?"

LangerDan

iainf72 wrote:

LangerDan wrote:

The UCI Licence Commission formally withdrew Saiz' licence at the end of 2006.

it probably went something like "Manalo are you sure you won't find a sponsor, we'd love to keep you on board?"

No - that conversation took place from August to December 2006. By the end of the year the line was
"Manolo, me old flower, we're going to have to take back the licence. You've feck all chance of laying your hands on any cash and we have the chance to flog it to some green-clad johnnies from some jumped-up dot-com type bookies. So hand it over, there's a good lad"
"I spit on your whore-mothers grave"
"Manolo, what did we say about that sort of talk?"
"Sorry, Pat"

aac

Cheers, clears my foggy mind.

Fond memories of the 98 Tour when he took exception to police raids on team hotels, and took his team home, sparking other teams to withdraw, riders sitting on the roads angrily pointing fingers at each other and the peloton looking remarkably small going up and down the champs elysses. Getting all misty eyed now, come back Saiz ... yeah, right.

Probably still doesn't see that he's done anything wrong.

blazing_saddles

afx237vi wrote:

"I feel cheated by my own country. I feel I was 'sold out' to the cycling establishment. Undoubtedly I feel innocent. I know perfectly well that I am not guilty."

The words of a man who believes he's just the sacrificial scapegoat; the tip of a doping iceberg. Unable to accept the fact that he got caught, red-handed, while others sail merrily along, seemingly oblivious to controls and sanctions.
Same reaction as we've had from others unlucky enough to get caught. Pantani, Hamilton, Landis; men who played by the peloton rules, but couldn't come to terms with being singled out at the testing lab.

cougie

Having him back in the peleton would be a step back.

Old guard. Old ways.

Jez mon

It would be terrible if he came back. For sure, there are people in the sport who are as bad as him. But that means we should get rid of them, not invite Saiz back in.

LangerDan

What if he said he was sorry and had an "independant testing programme"? That seems to be enough to prevent recidivism with riders - surely its enough for managers, too?

iainf72

Why say sorry?

Just get the program - Make sure it's ACE. Also, having a beard or sideburns helps the cause.

victorponf

I hope not, what a nightmare

drenkrom

All valid points, you guys make, but I just love to see such a fat man crane his neck (well, what's left of it anyhow) out of a car window and tell a rider to go harder. Oh, the irony...

Who else in the caravan is chubby enough to satisfy me?