Moi, controversial?
Caisse d’Epargne might be withdrawing from pro team sponsorship but the French savings bank has not had its last word. Team manager Eusebio Unzue wanted to sign Ricardo Ricco, on release from Flaminia, but the sponsor blocked the deal. “Unzue wanted me but not the French sponsor” explains Ricco in the Gazzetta dello Sport, “really, I don’t understand why.”
It should be obvious why the bank doesn’t want Ricco on the team. They’ve suffered enough reputational damage with the Alejandro Valverde fiasco, the last thing the departing sponsor needs is more controversy.
Doping? No problemo for Eusebio!
A shame too for the future of the new Spanish squad under the name of Movistar. Here was a chance for Unzue to win some PR credit by drawing a line, to put the silly and embarrassing defence of Valverde behind them and align themselves with the future of cycling, rather than recruiting pessimistic reminders of the past.
For Unzue, like Gianetti, Matxin, Alvaro Pino, Manolo Saiz et al, cycling and doping are one and the same; in the words of Stephane Heulot, '..they can't conceive of cycling without doping.'
Anonymous, I hope they can make a fresh start. Gianetti for example has a terrible reputation but he has been trying to do better things with Footon, hiring young riders and apparently adopting a "no needles" policy, where even vitamin injections are out of the question. So people can change if they are encouraged.
Unzue dug himself into a whole defending Valverde, he needs a ladder and not a hydraulic digger.