'You don't know what your children do in their bedrooms' – UAE Team Emirates-XRG's manager says he was a 'victim' of past doping scandals

UAE Team Emirates-XRG's general manager has said he was a "victim" of the doping scandals which rocked the former team he was in charge of.

In an interview with French sports newspaper L'Équipe at the 2026 Tour de France, which his team is set to win through Tadej Pogačar, Mauro Gianetti denied responsibility for the controversies which affected his former team, Saunier Duval.

At that team, where Gianetti was manager from 2004 to 2008, three riders, Leonardo Piepoli, Riccardo Ricco and Juan José Cobo, were involved in doping scandals, which included Ricco testing positive for EPO at the 2008 Tour. Cobo was stripped of the 2011 Vuelta a España title after abnormalities in his biological passport.

"I made the mistake of taking them in my team. I should have reacted differently, been clearer with the press, explain that I was a victim," Gianetti told L'Équipe.

"My concern was to save the jobs of 70 people. You never know what your children do in their rooms, and you certainly don't know what the riders do at home," he continued. "And before signing Ricco, I asked him to go to the UCI to be tested. The UCI then sent me a document stating that he did indeed have a naturally occurring hematocrit level above 50%. I feel like a victim of this. I filed a complaint in Italy against the riders who had caused me to lose sponsors and damaged my reputation."

A winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Amstel Gold Race in the notoriously EPO-affected era of the 1990s, Gianetti denied ever taking the drug. However, he said: "It was a peculiar time." On his hospitalisation at the 1998 Tour de Romandie, Gianetti said: "That's a personal matter; what I had to say, I've already said."

The 62-year-old, at the head of the UAE and Pogačar project, was asked if his past has damaged the image of the Tour's yellow jersey.

"In any case, Pogacar is so strong that no matter the team, there will be doubts concerning him," Gianetti said. "I'm doing my job, I've brought more than 600 million euros into cycling, getting contracts signed, salaries."