SAIZ OUT OF PROTOUR, UNIBET IN

UCI ProTour

The UCI?s ProTour Licence Committee have decided that Manolo Saiz?s company, Active Bay, will no longer form part of the ProTour. In the same communique the UCI also announced that Unibet.com - which has British rider Jeremy Hunt in their line-up, along with Tour stage winners Baden Cooke and Jimmy Casper - have been granted a licence following a two-year wait.

But the most dramatic news undoubtably concerned Saiz, one of the founders of the ProTour along with former UCI president Hein Verbruggen, and now excluded from cycling?s top league. Following Saiz?s implication in the major anti-doping investigation codenamed Operacion Puerto this May , Saiz?s sponsor, Astana, has opted to bypass the Spaniard for 2007 and set up a new team for next season, based in Switzerland and run by former rider?s agent Marc Biver.

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