Jesús Manzano
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Jesús Maria Manzano Ruano |
| Born |
12 May 1978 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Retired |
| Rider type | Climber |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 2000–2003 | Kelme-Costa Blanca |
| 2004 | Amore e Vita |
Jesús María Manzano Ruano (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 12 May 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.
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 Rioja. 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 González. 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 Óscar 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 of 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.
In March 2004 Manzano said he would expose the doping activities of his former team, Kelme, who had sacked him the previous September. In an exclusive interview with the Spanish newspaper AS, Manzano detailed the blood doping 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.
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