Manolo Saiz selling huge collection of bikes

Former ONCE, Liberty Seguros and Astana team manager Manolo Saiz has put a vast collection of
pristine
team bikes up for auction on website ebay.

The bikes all appear to be ex-team bikes and special one-off machines related to the Spanish top-tier teams that the 52-year-old managed from 1989 to 2006.

According to literature accompanying the online auction, the collection includes the bike that Joseba Beloki was riding when he crashed in the 2003 Tour de France, famously causing Lance Armstrong to ride across a field.

A total of 57 bikes, mostly branded Look, Giant or BH, are on offer at a starting price of $50,000 and will only be sold as an entire lot. A photo of each bike appears on the Barreda Museum website.

Saiz added a note at the bottom of the auction on Saturday: “I auction my private collection by personal motives, I want to auction it complete, and whom ever would buy it or show a good interest I would be glad to show this collection and provide further documentation.”

Saiz resigned as manager of the Astana team in 2006 after being embroiled in the Operacion Puerto doping investigation that centred on the Madrid clinic of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. In November last year it was announced that Saiz and Fuentes face formal charges for their alleged involvement in organised doping.