The Spanish rider Luis Leon Sanchez is suspected of doping. Blanco employer has insufficient evidence for dismissal.
He even wants to win Blanco Sánchez off
It was a victory that felt like a defeat. When Luis León Sánchez last Sunday the queen stage of the Tour of Belgium won - after a solo of forty kilometers - was on the team led by Blanco especially sighing, supported and cursed. He wore the Blanco-shirt was bad enough, he also won was twice as bad.
Previously a Blank foreman said it all: "Luis León is a problem." That has not changed. On the contrary. Blanco, led by Richard Plugge, tried everything to get rid of him. They are intertwined in a stranglehold from which escape seems impossible.
Back to the root of the problem: the contract Sánchez signed in August 2012. That ties him for three years - at the time - Rabobank, for approximately 2.6 million. Team happy, happy Sánchez. But not long after his contract extension is his name in the Usada report: he would be guided by the Italian doping doctor Michele Ferrari.
Blanco that sponsor Rabobank has lost and wants to make a clean sweep, start an internal investigation - not only to Sánchez 'relationship with Ferrari, also to his connections with two Spanish doping doctors: Eufemiano Fuentes and Jesús Losa. The doubts arise as NRC late January Sánchez writes that he would have been at Fuentes, under deschuilnaam Huerto, number 26. Customers Huerto, three blood bags found in the freezer of Fuentes.
The identity of Huerto: - can be derived from tapped phone calls in the police file of Operación Puerto (literal translation garden as a reference to the region of his native region Murcia). Fuentes speaks in the reports twice with partner Ignacio Labarta about Huerto. Especially the second call during the Tour of Catalonia, on May 15, is important.
Fuentes: "Huerto called me, To say that ..."
Labarta: "Yes, they told me."
Fuentes, "... he was 25 seconds late at the start. "
The match report from news agency EFE that it was Sánchez who arrived late at the starting stage of the prologue. This is confirmed by the press secretary of the course and his former team manager Manolo Saíz. Sánchez would have appeared at the start. Late due to a material issue The Guardia Civil concludes that Sanchez is hidden behind Huerto, according to page 190 of document 77 of the first part of the file of the original Civil Guard documents from Operación Puerto.
Blanco Sánchez put on hold. The leadership team gathers information and confronts him with facts during an interview in Amsterdam, in front of lawyers. Sánchez denies everything. He says he used no drugs and no customer was with Fuentes. Further demonstrate his lawyers documents from the file of Operación Puerto identical to the documents that the Blanco team has realized - but with a difference: the name of Luis León Sánchez is not in it. The conclusion that the Civil Guard pulled into the first version of the file is deleted in the next version.
According to various Spanish ex-riders that happened because Sánchez 'father is employed by the Guardia Civil. One of them says: "The Guardia Civil is a cult in the spirit of Franco. A child of another Civil Guard is special in those grades. Probably someone Luis León removed from the study for this reason: they do not examine each other's families. "
Anyway: suddenly has no legal leg to stand more Blanco. But apart from doping denies Sánchez also that he was late at the starting stage of the prologue of the Tour of Catalonia. That sand: in past press releases, can be found on the Internet, says Sánchez indeed came back too late. Furthermore, in the article in this newspaper several sources that confirm that staged reading.
But if those sources Blanco contacts know some suddenly nothing more. The press secretary of the Tour of Catalonia suffers sudden amnesia and the former German rider Erik Zabel (on the fateful day after Sánchez started and by team leaders of the Spanish Movistar squad would have told him to step because Sánchez to the side late was rushing) says it is not sure. Blanco has indications that Sánchez lying, but that is contractually not enough to turn it off. The team
This creates a status quo. Sanchez continues to deny, Blanco proposes not to him. The team hopes for a breakthrough in the Italian process around the practice of Dr. Ferrari, or process around the Spanish Operación Puerto. Blanco prays that prosecutors in Puerto process for getting together to match that of Sánchez, the DNA of the blood bags but these hopes were dashed when the Spanish judge forbids to use for evidence. Blood bags Support of the international cycling union UCI or the Spanish Cycling Federation will not Blanco.
Also other teams is little support. They do not understand that Blanco one of his best riders not used. And Katyusha set Ángel Vicioso, which is also charged in connection with Fuentes just?
The team led by Blanco sitting with hands in hair, especially when Sánchez threatening to arbitration with the UCI. He wants to spread, and according to Dutch labor law he is entitled to work. The option to make him race low rated cycling to give him a program is legally impossible. In consultation with the arbitrator of the UCI is a compiled program which both parties can agree. Sánchez makes his comeback in the Tour of Belgium and will then include the Vuelta a España drive. But Blanco cant set him up in the Tour de France - that publicity is too explosive. The official response of Blanco manager Richard Plugge reads: "Luis Leon runs the games as we have announced and we can not comment further."
And so, the team Sánchez from that moment on, though it is by no means wholeheartedly. Sánchez 'teammates in the Tour of Belgium are told that they do not have to sacrifice their chances for him of team management - no mather how well he rides. His presence is tolerated, but that's about it. He wins the final stage is not the result of teamwork, Sánchez does it all himself.
A future not Sánchez Blanco. Love is over, but there is a contract which both parties together damns. The most likely scenario is that Blanco his contract late this year repurchases, and he departs with a bag of money.
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