Jesús Manzano
Encyclopedia
Jesús María Manzano Ruano (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, May 12, 1978) is a former Spanish
professional road racing cyclist. He is famous as the whistleblower of systematic doping within his cycling team and his statements led the Guardia Civil to conduct the Operación Puerto investigation around the sport doctor Eufemiano Fuentes
.
. That same year he rode the 2001 Giro d'Italia
where he had to retire after colliding with a course motorbike. The following year he rode in both the 2002 Giro d'Italia
and the 2002 Vuelta a España
. Manzano did not finish the Giro nor the Vuelta but his team Kelme were successful in the latter with the overall win by Aitor Gonzalez
. At that time Kelme was one of the strongest Spanish teams in the Vuelta a España and won the race with Roberto Heras
in 2000, Gonzalez in 2002 as well as being the runner up in 2001 with Oscar Sevilla
. Manzano would have worked for the team during these races. In the Volta a Catalunya in 2003, Manzano got his second victory after an escape for 130 km. Manzano rode the 2003 Tour de France
until a crash on the seventh stage (discussed below) followed by the 2003 Vuelta a España
where he rode with a knee injury. Manzano stayed in the race until the 20th stage. He had been found with a woman in his bedroom the previous night which was not allowed by the team who subsequently, as has been written, fired him.
practices of his former team Kelme. Manzano said that at the end of 2002 two half litre sachets of his blood were removed in a clinic in Valencia which was intended to be transfused during the 2003 Tour de France
. In addition, Manzano paid 3,000 euros before the start of the 2003 Tour de France to the team for the medical expenses as an investment to what he and the team expected would be repaid with the proceeds of a stage win or other wins. He believed that the rest of the riders on the team paid the same amount of money. On the morning of the seventh stage of the Tour, the team doctor gave him a product that he had never used before. Fifty millilitres were injected into one of his veins. On the first climb of the day, Col de Portes, Manzano and Richard Virenque
attacked the peloton and got away in an attempt to bridge up to an earlier breakaway. As Virenque’s teammate was ahead, Virenque did not do any of the work to get to the group. After three kilometres of the climb, Manzano began to become dizzy. Virenque attacked and got away. Manzano collapsed after a further 500 metres and was airlifted to the hospital in Belley
. The Tour de France doctor who was the first medically trained person on the scene to tend to Manzano mistakingly diagnosed a heatstroke. According to Manzano, the team manager Joan Mas asked him to refuse all analysis at the hospital. Manzano would later say that the drug that was administered on the morning of the seventh stage of the Tour de France was Oxyglobin
.
Manzano had a near fatal dehydration
which he believed was due to the morning injection. After the Tour he began to feel depressed and no longer had a desire to race. His directeur sportif
told him he had to ride the Volta a Portugal
and, according to Manzano, threatened him with losing his job on the team. Several days later in Valencia Manzano received 125ml of blood from an assistant of the team doctor. Manzano said that there was no control conducted to ensure that the unlabelled blood bag was his blood and afterwards felt sick. He tried to take the train but his condition was so bad that he had to leave the train before it left the station. Again he went to the clinic where he was given Urbason.
the director of the Tour de France was also sceptical about the allegations. The Kelme officials dismissed his claims as revenge and Manzano did say that he wanted revenge on the team that had left him short of a month's wages and unemployed. It has been reported that by making the confessions to the As newspaper as well as selling television rights outside of Spain, Manzano earned 300,000 euros. After his confession of doping the Italian Amore e Vita cycling team
offered him a place on the team.
Manzano made further revelations in a second interview with the paper where he alleged that the teams en-masse withdrawal from stage one of the Tour of Portugal in 2003 was connected to a positive doping test in the previous Tour de France and that the riders withdrew en masse to avoid being tested and subsequently caught. Manzano detailed the performance enhancing drugs that he used which included several types of Erythropoietin
(Eprex, Neorecormon, Epocrin (Russian EPO), Epomax), Human growth hormone, Cortisone
, Geref (Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone), Neoferinon, Androgel (testosterone
), nandrolone
(for the winter), synthetic haemoglobin, Actovegin, as well as Oxyglobin
. He alleged that the daily cortisone injections for his knee injury during the 2003 Vuelta a España did severe damage to his knee and he spoke of the pressure to dope in professional cycling.
After the more detailed revelations, the Kelme team who had been invited to the 2004 Tour de France
had their invite withdrawn.
An investigation began from the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) which was initially hindered by Gómez Angulo who tried to block the investigation due to his withdrawal of confidence for CSD’s sports director and the President of the Anti-Doping Commission Guillermo Jiménez. The investigation continued with several members of the Kelme team called as for questioning in April 2004. These included Eufemiano Fuentes
who was at that time the current Kelme team doctor, Walter Virú the team doctor before Fuentes, and Alfredo Córdova who was working for Liberty Seguros but was involved with Kelme in 2003 during the 2003 Tour de France, the 2003 Tour of Portugal and in Valencia when Manzano was gravely ill after a blood transfusion. The case into doping on the Kelme cycling team was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.
Manzano’s knee injury was not healing and he was not able to return to competition with the Italian Amore e Vita team.
, former 5,000-metre champion Alberto Garcia and Spanish 1,500-metre athlete Reyes Estévez
were in a hotel where Fuentes is claimed to have been offering consultations.
and the different products available that can be used for doping. Later, he claimed that Alejandro Valverde
doped with testosterone during the 2002 Vuelta a España
and that Rolf Aldag
’s claim of doping being personal and not involving other riders in the team was a "big lie".
2003
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
professional road racing cyclist. He is famous as the whistleblower of systematic doping within his cycling team and his statements led the Guardia Civil to conduct the Operación Puerto investigation around the sport doctor Eufemiano Fuentes
Eufemiano Fuentes
Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is a Spanish sports doctor best known for being implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case.Fuentes was once an athlete. He then became the team doctor of Team ONCE, Amaya and the Kelme. The former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano accused Fuentes of being involved with doping....
.
Cycling career
Manzano turned professional in 2000 with the Kelme-Costa Blanca team that he would stay with until late 2003. Manzano's first professional win came in 2001 at the Vuelta a La RiojaVuelta a La Rioja
The Vuelta a La Rioja is a regional Spanish road bicycle race held in La Rioja. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour.The event is facing financial challenges in 2009. Wrote velonews.com:...
. That same year he rode the 2001 Giro d'Italia
2001 Giro d'Italia
The 2001 Giro d'Italia of cycling, the 84th running of the race, was held from 19 May to 10 June 2001. It consisted of a prologue plus 21 stages with one rest days, for a total of 3,356 km, ridden at an average speed of 40.170 km/h. It was won by Gilberto Simoni.- Stages :-Jersey Progress:- General...
where he had to retire after colliding with a course motorbike. The following year he rode in both the 2002 Giro d'Italia
2002 Giro d'Italia
The 2002 Giro d'Italia of cycling, the 85th running of the race, was held from 11 May to 2 June 2002. It consisted of a prologue in Groningen plus 20 stages with two rest days, for a total of 3,354 km, ridden at an average speed of 37.567 km/h. It was won by the Italian Paolo...
and the 2002 Vuelta a España
2002 Vuelta a España
The 57th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 7 to September 29, 2002...
. Manzano did not finish the Giro nor the Vuelta but his team Kelme were successful in the latter with the overall win by Aitor Gonzalez
Aitor González
Aitor González Jiménez is a former Spanish road bicycle racer who raced as a professional from 1998 to 2005. He turned professional in 1998 with Avianca-Telecom; his last was Euskaltel-Euskadi. He won the 2002 Vuelta a España with Kelme after attacking his teammate leading the race. He won and the...
. At that time Kelme was one of the strongest Spanish teams in the Vuelta a España and won the race with Roberto Heras
Roberto Heras
Roberto Heras Hernández is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer who won the Vuelta a España a record-tying three times. He broke the record with a fourth win in 2005, but was disqualified for taking EPO. In June 2011, Heras successfully appealed the disqualification in the civil court...
in 2000, Gonzalez in 2002 as well as being the runner up in 2001 with Oscar Sevilla
Oscar Sevilla
Óscar Miguel Sevilla Ribera , nicknamed El Niño, is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He is a climber with a pedigree in stage races, having finished in the top ten of the Tour de France and Vuelta a España several times...
. Manzano would have worked for the team during these races. In the Volta a Catalunya in 2003, Manzano got his second victory after an escape for 130 km. Manzano rode the 2003 Tour de France
2003 Tour de France
The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...
until a crash on the seventh stage (discussed below) followed by the 2003 Vuelta a España
2003 Vuelta a España
The 58th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 6 to September 28, 2003...
where he rode with a knee injury. Manzano stayed in the race until the 20th stage. He had been found with a woman in his bedroom the previous night which was not allowed by the team who subsequently, as has been written, fired him.
Doping revelations
In March 2004 Manzano said he would expose the doping activities of his former team, Kelme, who had sacked Manzano the previous September. In an exclusive interview with the Spanish newspaper AS, Manzano detailed the blood dopingBlood doping
Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance. Because such blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, a higher concentration in the blood can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and...
practices of his former team Kelme. Manzano said that at the end of 2002 two half litre sachets of his blood were removed in a clinic in Valencia which was intended to be transfused during the 2003 Tour de France
2003 Tour de France
The 2003 Tour de France started and ended in Paris. Lasting from July 5 to July 27 the race covered 3,427.5 km , proceeding clockwise in twenty stages around France, including six major mountain stages...
. In addition, Manzano paid 3,000 euros before the start of the 2003 Tour de France to the team for the medical expenses as an investment to what he and the team expected would be repaid with the proceeds of a stage win or other wins. He believed that the rest of the riders on the team paid the same amount of money. On the morning of the seventh stage of the Tour, the team doctor gave him a product that he had never used before. Fifty millilitres were injected into one of his veins. On the first climb of the day, Col de Portes, Manzano and Richard Virenque
Richard Virenque
Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", making it Vee-rank. But Virenque says Vee-rahnk or...
attacked the peloton and got away in an attempt to bridge up to an earlier breakaway. As Virenque’s teammate was ahead, Virenque did not do any of the work to get to the group. After three kilometres of the climb, Manzano began to become dizzy. Virenque attacked and got away. Manzano collapsed after a further 500 metres and was airlifted to the hospital in Belley
Belley
Belley is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.-History:Belley is of Roman origin, and in the 5th century became an episcopal see. It was the capital of the province of Bugey, which was a dependency of Savoy till 1601, when it was ceded to France...
. The Tour de France doctor who was the first medically trained person on the scene to tend to Manzano mistakingly diagnosed a heatstroke. According to Manzano, the team manager Joan Mas asked him to refuse all analysis at the hospital. Manzano would later say that the drug that was administered on the morning of the seventh stage of the Tour de France was Oxyglobin
Oxyglobin
Similar to Hemopure, Oxyglobin is also developed by Biopure and is an oxygen-therapeutic based on chemically stabilized bovine hemoglobin. However, unlike Hemopure, which is for human use, Oxyglobin is intended for the veterinary market, and is used to treat anemia in dogs...
.
Manzano had a near fatal dehydration
Dehydration
In physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
which he believed was due to the morning injection. After the Tour he began to feel depressed and no longer had a desire to race. His directeur sportif
Directeur sportif
A directeur sportif is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event...
told him he had to ride the Volta a Portugal
Volta a Portugal
The Volta a Portugal em bicicleta is a long distance road bicycle race for professionals held in Portugal. The competition takes place annually during a two-week span.- History :...
and, according to Manzano, threatened him with losing his job on the team. Several days later in Valencia Manzano received 125ml of blood from an assistant of the team doctor. Manzano said that there was no control conducted to ensure that the unlabelled blood bag was his blood and afterwards felt sick. He tried to take the train but his condition was so bad that he had to leave the train before it left the station. Again he went to the clinic where he was given Urbason.
Aftermath
Immediately the Kelme team denied the allegations and Jean-Marie LeblancJean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005, when he reached pensionable age and was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme.He became a professional in 1966 and rode until 1971...
the director of the Tour de France was also sceptical about the allegations. The Kelme officials dismissed his claims as revenge and Manzano did say that he wanted revenge on the team that had left him short of a month's wages and unemployed. It has been reported that by making the confessions to the As newspaper as well as selling television rights outside of Spain, Manzano earned 300,000 euros. After his confession of doping the Italian Amore e Vita cycling team
Cycling team
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel...
offered him a place on the team.
Manzano made further revelations in a second interview with the paper where he alleged that the teams en-masse withdrawal from stage one of the Tour of Portugal in 2003 was connected to a positive doping test in the previous Tour de France and that the riders withdrew en masse to avoid being tested and subsequently caught. Manzano detailed the performance enhancing drugs that he used which included several types of Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
(Eprex, Neorecormon, Epocrin (Russian EPO), Epomax), Human growth hormone, Cortisone
Cortisone
Cortisone is a steroid hormone. It is one of the main hormones released by the adrenal gland in response to stress. In chemical structure, it is a corticosteroid closely related to corticosterone. It is used to treat a variety of ailments and can be administered intravenously, orally,...
, Geref (Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone), Neoferinon, Androgel (testosterone
Testosterone
Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group and is found in mammals, reptiles, birds, and other vertebrates. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands...
), nandrolone
Nandrolone
Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body, albeit in minute quantities of less than 0.4 ng/ml. Nandrolone is most commonly sold commercially as its decanoate ester and less commonly as a phenylpropionate ester...
(for the winter), synthetic haemoglobin, Actovegin, as well as Oxyglobin
Oxyglobin
Similar to Hemopure, Oxyglobin is also developed by Biopure and is an oxygen-therapeutic based on chemically stabilized bovine hemoglobin. However, unlike Hemopure, which is for human use, Oxyglobin is intended for the veterinary market, and is used to treat anemia in dogs...
. He alleged that the daily cortisone injections for his knee injury during the 2003 Vuelta a España did severe damage to his knee and he spoke of the pressure to dope in professional cycling.
After the more detailed revelations, the Kelme team who had been invited to the 2004 Tour de France
2004 Tour de France
The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st, taking place from July 3 to July 25, 2004. It consisted of 20 stages over 3391 km.Lance Armstrong became the first to win six Tours de France. Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and...
had their invite withdrawn.
An investigation began from the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) which was initially hindered by Gómez Angulo who tried to block the investigation due to his withdrawal of confidence for CSD’s sports director and the President of the Anti-Doping Commission Guillermo Jiménez. The investigation continued with several members of the Kelme team called as for questioning in April 2004. These included Eufemiano Fuentes
Eufemiano Fuentes
Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is a Spanish sports doctor best known for being implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case.Fuentes was once an athlete. He then became the team doctor of Team ONCE, Amaya and the Kelme. The former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano accused Fuentes of being involved with doping....
who was at that time the current Kelme team doctor, Walter Virú the team doctor before Fuentes, and Alfredo Córdova who was working for Liberty Seguros but was involved with Kelme in 2003 during the 2003 Tour de France, the 2003 Tour of Portugal and in Valencia when Manzano was gravely ill after a blood transfusion. The case into doping on the Kelme cycling team was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.
Manzano’s knee injury was not healing and he was not able to return to competition with the Italian Amore e Vita team.
Operación Puerto
Two years after Manzano’s first allegations to the international press, the Operación Puerto investigation began in early 2006 with the result of arrests in May 2006. Manzano’s statements had led directly to the development of this investigation. Manzano claimed that there were other sports athletes treated by Dr.Fuentes such as soccer players and track and field athletes. He is alleged to have said that an International footballer was associated with Fuentes and also that former World Marathon champion Abel AntónAbel Antón
Abel Antón Rodrigo is a Spanish long-distance runner. He won gold medals in the marathon at the 1997 and the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. In 1998 Antón became the first Spanish runner to win the London Marathon...
, former 5,000-metre champion Alberto Garcia and Spanish 1,500-metre athlete Reyes Estévez
Reyes Estévez
Reyes Estévez López is a Spanish 1500 metres runner. He won the European Championships' final 1998 in Budapest...
were in a hotel where Fuentes is claimed to have been offering consultations.
Post Operación commentary
Manzano has been writing columns and has been interviewed several times since the Operación Puerto scandal as an expert on doping practices in the sport. In an article in the Spanish paper As, he told of the effects of testosteroneTestosterone
Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group and is found in mammals, reptiles, birds, and other vertebrates. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands...
and the different products available that can be used for doping. Later, he claimed that Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte is a Spanish road racing cyclist currently under suspension. He last rode for UCI ProTour team . Valverde's biggest wins have been the 2009 Vuelta a España, the Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008 and 2006 UCI ProTour series championship...
doped with testosterone during the 2002 Vuelta a España
2002 Vuelta a España
The 57th Vuelta a España , a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from September 7 to September 29, 2002...
and that Rolf Aldag
Rolf Aldag
Rolf Aldag is a former professional road bicycle racer who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 2005. He has raced in 10 Tour de France, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5 Vuelta a España...
’s claim of doping being personal and not involving other riders in the team was a "big lie".
Palmares
2001- 1st, stage Vuelta a La RiojaVuelta a La RiojaThe Vuelta a La Rioja is a regional Spanish road bicycle race held in La Rioja. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour.The event is facing financial challenges in 2009. Wrote velonews.com:...
2003
- 1st, stage Volta a Catalunya
See also
- List of doping cases in cycling
- List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences