Manolo Saiz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás (born 16 October 1959, Torrelavega, Cantabria) is the former team manager of one of the most successful Spanish professional road bicycle racing teams, first called Team ONCE, then Liberty Seguros-Würth, Astana-Würth, and lastly Astana Team.
Saiz became famous for introducing modern management practices to the cycling world, and for being a very hands-on manager and directeur sportif. He consolidated his riders' training regimes and hired professional staff to manage their coaching and racing program.
Despite not having a racing background himself, he managed to nurture the ONCE team to become one of the biggest cycling powerhouses in the professional peloton. Some of his famous riders include Frenchman Laurent Jalabert and Swiss Alex Zülle, both of whom dominated the Vuelta a España, with both riders winning the general classification and many other classifications. In 1995 Jalabert achieved the trifecta by winning the general classification along with the points and king of the mountain classifications.
His next generation of riders include Spaniard Abraham Olano, followed by Igor González de Galdeano and Joseba Beloki. In this incarnation, the ONCE team dominated the team time trial events in the Tour de France.
At the end of the 2003 ONCE decided to discontinue their sponsorship, citing the success of their sponsorship as the reason: it was so successful that the penetration was 100% in Spain, meaning that every Spaniard surveyed knew what ONCE was and what they did. Saiz then brought Liberty Seguros (the Spanish branch of the US company Liberty Mutual) and Würth, a German assembly technology company to be co-sponsor.
On 23 May 2006, Saiz was arrested in connection with the Operación Puerto doping scandals. He later resigned 1. His company Active Bay was stripped of its ProTour license, which was then awarded to the new company now backing Astana Team.
