Yvon Sanquer Speaks

frenchfighter

VeloChrono - by Alexandre Phillipon - Yvon Sanquer, general manager of the Astana team since January 2010, will not remain in this post in 2011: the Olympus SARL corporation, with which he managed the Kazakh outfit, has indeed been replaced by Abacanto SA.

Sanquer explains the circumstances of the break-up of this collaboration, occurring after a “progressive isolation from team management” which led to a “ban on any contact, leading, as time went by, to the necessity of taking legal action."

The French manager reacts now through a press release he calls “The truth and nothing but the truth,” an epistle drafted in the interests of transparency. “I don’t want my long silence to suggest I have anything to hide or to blame myself for.”

“I was hired by Astana as general manager in October 2009 with the objective of making of Astana a team like any other: respectful of financial, legal and ethical issues, while preserving its uniqueness in the sports world, including the best rider in the world—Alberto Contador—and respecting its singularity of being sponsored by a State," he explains.

“On the one hand, I was supposed to obtain a Pro Tour license, and on the other, to establish structures that were greatly lacking in the Astana team. In each of my approaches, I took into consideration and respected the national investment and the patriotic Kazakh spirit of the Kazakh government, as well as the importance of the role of Alexander Vinokourov.

"However, the situation in which the Astana team happened to find itself, as well as the image it projected, required the establishment of appropriate and new working methods. Once the team was rescued—registered for 2010—I was rapidly convinced that the Kazakh leaders had hired me to be their moral guarantee and their showcase.

“I got the feeling that the decision of Astana managers to break off their collaboration with me was taken early last season. I could feel it as early as the month of May.

“During the first meeting concerning the negotiation regarding the renewal of Alberto Contador’s contract, at the beginning of last May, his manager and his advisor nevertheless expressed to the Astana representative the Spanish champion’s satisfaction as to our collaboration.”

“Furthermore, originally I had played a leading part in Contador’s decision to carry on riding under the colours of Astana in 2011. He personally intervened so that I should continue as general manager for the coming years.

“However, at the end of the Giro d’Italia, and after a meeting held on May 31, 2010 with the top management of Astana for the purpose of studying the future and more precisely the recruitment for 2011, my e-mails requesting clarification on the team project remained unanswered.”

The former manager of the National Cycling League is proud of Alberto Contador’s Tour de France victory, in which “he remained fully involved”. He recounts that the Pistolero won the race “without anyone questioning his honesty at the time."

“On this level, I completed the mission that had been entrusted to me, thanks to the unwavering support of the partners as well as that of almost all the staff, their hard work, as well as that of the riders in a sometimes difficult setting.”

On August 3, just a few days after the Champs Elysées celebration, Yvon Sanquer was notified of the end of his collaboration with Astana.

Kléber

Employment disputes aside, he could be pleased he escaped this disastrous team. Apparently he's taking Astana to court.