RIP Liberty Seguros?

[cinelli]

Looks like Liberty Seguros is no more. Can their current riders ride for another team this season since their contracts are probably worthless? Any takers for a former Tour de France contender......Vino?

[Headwinds]

Looks like Liberty Seguros is no more. Can their current riders ride for another team this season since their contracts are probably worthless? Any takers for a former Tour de France contender......Vino?


....If Saunier Duval-Prodir picks him up. They have a good ensemble of riders that can cause some damage in the Tour. Especially in the mountains.

[cinelli]

Would Saunier or any other team want to risk hiring an ex-Liberty rider?

[Bill Bove]

Would Saunier or any other team want to risk hiring an ex-Liberty rider?
Good point.

Saiz apparently had a list in his possesion with many names on it. Another black eye for cycling. :crap:

[zeroking17]

Would Saunier or any other team want to risk hiring an ex-Liberty rider?


According to some reports, there were as many as two hundred athletes' names on a list, including some track and fielders. In any case, this likely taints more riders than just those from Liberty.

[flydhest]

where the taint ends is the riddle of the sphincts.

[zeroking17]

where the taint ends is the riddle of the sphincts.


Methinks the truth will come out in the end.

[MartyE]

Liberty did not own the team, they were the primary sponsers (to the tune
of $8.5 million a year). Active Bay still owns the team, and I would imagine
the contracts of all of the riders.

[ada@prorider.or]

and wurth

10 mil a year?!

what will they do

[manet]

Liberty Seguros terminate contract
By Anthony Tan in Gemona Del Friuli, Italy, with additional reporting
from Hernan Alvarez

In the wake of Manolo Saiz's recent detention for his alleged
involvement in a blood doping program, Spanish news agency EFE has just
released a newsflash, announcing primary sponsor Liberty Seguros have
chosen to cancel their cycling sponsorship from the Liberty
Seguros-Würth team, effective immediately. The team's press officer,
Jacinto Vidarte, confirmed the annoucement with Cyclingnews.

Saiz as well as four other people were arrested by the Spanish civil
guard as part of an anti-doping operation called "Operacion Puerto",
where he was reported to be carrying 60.000 Euros in UE currency and
Swiss francs. No doubt, a clause exists in Liberty Seguros' contract
with Active Bay SL, the team's holding company, enabling the former to
annul their sponsorship contract if a serious doping situation arises.

"As sponsor, Liberty Seguros has always wanted fair play and a zero
tolerance culture to prevail in doping matters," said a statement from
the sponsor.

"On November 2005, as a consequence of a rider being banned [referring
to Roberto Heras-ed.] because of doping, we reinforced the clauses in
order to get one of the strictest sponsorship contracts in terms of
anti-doping. The implications as a result of Manolo Saiz's arrest are
of great concern. They harm our name and cycling's name," said the
announcement.

"Operacion Puerto" began on May 23. It not only affects Manolo Saiz,
who was released yesterday by the civil guard but also team doctors
Eufemiano Fuentes and Jose Luis Merino Batres, Ignacio Labarta from
Comunidad Valenciana and ex-mountain bike rider Alberto Leon. According
to an EFE report, the guard found hormones, anabolic steroids and
packets of blood and material to perform blood transfusions.

The guard allegedly found a list with 200 Spanish and non-Spanish
riders names linked to doping practices.

How this will affect the six riders currently racing the Giro d'Italia
or the immediate future of the team is not yet known.

[Elefantino]

There was talk of Vino going to Disco before he landed with Liberty.

Considering that DC has no one for GC, would they take a one-year flyer?

If he is clean, of course.

Or is he too much of a d*ck-type rider for Bruyneel?

[sspielman]

Or is he too much of a d*ck-type rider for Bruyneel?

Recent history would indicate that Bruyneel specialises in that type of rider...

[Elefantino]

Saiz' team to continue racing

Despite the withdrawal of its main sponsor, the team formerly known as Liberty Seguros-Würth will continue racing until the end of this season, with Manolo Saiz still involved, the Spanish press reports. Saiz was arrested earlier this week on doping charges as part of an anti-doping operation carried out by the Spanish civil guard. However, he was released after questioning, as police considered him merely a 'client' of the doping ring, and not one of the ringleaders. Four others, including former cycling team doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, remain in custody.

After his release, Saiz, together with his associate Pablo Antón, who co-own the team's management company Active Bay SL, indicated that the team will continue until at least the end of the season with Würth as the sole sponsor. However, the available funds will be dramatically reduced, as Liberty Seguros contributed approximately 70% of the €10 million/year budget. The team currently employs 52 people, including 29 riders.

"I haven't planned to stop the team," said Antón to Europa Press. The team's press officer Jacinto Vidarte confirmed to Sportwereld.be, "The future of the team is assured until the end of the season, at least, even if Liberty disappears from the jerseys."

Team rider Koen de Kort commented in his Giro d'Italia diary, "What is exactly going on now, I don't know; we are actually getting very little information here. What I do know as that the team will continue. I have my contract with a company called Active Bay and not with the sponsor itself. What happens to myself and all of us here now, we have to wait and see."

Manolo Saiz' continuing involvement with the team will likely depend on how the case unfolds. Saiz will be required to appear before the investigating judge at some stage in the near future. If he is formally implicated in this doping affair, then the Spanish cycling federation could start proceedings against him, which could result in a two year suspension, as well as the revocation of his ProTour licence. That of course will have implications for the team's racing program for the rest of the year, including its participation in the Tour de France.