Bernard Sainz
Encyclopedia
Bernard Sainz, aka Dr Mabuse, (born Rennes, France, 1 September 1943) was an unlicensed sports doctor who achieved great success in horse racing and cycling. He was jailed for falsely practising medicine, particularly in cycle racing.
a club in the suburbs of Paris
. One of his first training companions was Pierre Trentin
, a future sprint champion. In 1964 he came third in the French students' championship in his home town. The winner was Jean-Marie Leblanc
, who became a professional and then organiser of the Tour de France
. He stopped racing after crashing in a motor-paced race on the velodrome
at Grenoble
Sainz first consulted a homeopathic doctor in 1956 after persistent sinusitis
. Sainz said:
Sainz says he studied for three years at the homeopathic school of St Jacques in Paris
and at the national homeopathy centre, from which he said he qualified with the praise of the examiners. He has always insisted that he practised homeopathy
in treating racing cyclists. He accepts in his biography that his qualifications in homeopathy and acupuncture
are not recognised in France.
tracks. In 1988 one of his three-year-olds, Soft Machine, caused a surprise by winning a big race three days after losing an unimportant one for which he had been favourite. The suspicion was that Sainz had doped the horse to run faster, but nothing was found. Sainz said:
It was the training that he gave horses and the instructions that he gave his jockeys, he said in his autobiography, that made his horse successful. Sainz said he was surprised, with his cycling background, to see how lightly horses were trained. The accepted theory was that a horse should race and then rest for 18 days.
It was around this time that Sainz acquired the nickname Dr Mabuse, after the villain in a series of German books and films. Sainz was questioned in an inquiry into possible doping of horses. Horse-racing, Sainz said, was an area where he had made few friends and which didn't lack dangerous people.
replaced Antonin Magne
as manager. Caput approached Edmond Mercier, the bicycle-maker behind Poulidor's team, and asked to bring Sainz into the team management. Mercier agreed, said Sainz, because he was already treating Mercier for his own health problems. Mercier had also brought in the insurance company, GAN, as main sponsor. GAN, said Sainz, wanted Raymond Poulidor
, who had said the previous year that he would not race any more. Sainz said:
Sainz continued:
In Paris–Nice, the first important stage race of the season, Poulidor was 22 seconds behind Eddy Merckx
on the morning of the last day. Poulidor attacked from the start, setting a speed record on the col de la Turbie that stood for more than 10 years and won Paris–Nice by two seconds. Next year he won Paris–Nice again and also the Dauphiné Libéré
.
Sainz also treated Cyrille Guimard
when pain in his knees was threatening his lead in the Tour de France. The two had met three years earlier. Sainz kept Guimard in the Tour even though the rider had sometimes to be carried from his bicycle. Sainz said:
In 1986 he was cleared in an investigation into the trading of amphetamine
at the Paris six-day race. He was questioned about illegal practice of medicine and held for two months in 1999. In 2002 police stopped him for speeding and driving without insurance on the E17 autoroute in Belgium
and found homeopathic medicines in his car. He told police he had been to see the Belgian cyclist, Frank Vandenbroucke
. They went to see Vandenbroucke and found EPO
, morphine
and clenbuterol
. Vandenbroucke claimed they were for his dog.
The investigation brought out other names, such as Philippe Gaumont
, who rode with Vandenbroucke at Cofidis
and Yvon Ledanois of another team, Française des Jeux. Gaumont said Sainz gave them only homeopathic treatments. Vandenbroucke said he was naive but not dishonest in using Sainz, but that he was impressed at his results.
On release from jail in Belgium, Sainz was re-arrested in France for breaking conditions imposed on him in 1999 to keep him away from the sport. Ten used syringes were found in Sainz's office and he was accused of possessing and administering testosterone and corticoids. Sainz said the testosterone was to increase his sexual performance and the corticoids for treating horses. The case was dropped.
Vandenbroucke, however, held a news conference in Ploegsteert, Belgium, to say he had always thought Sainz gave him homeopathic products but that he had doubts. He said Sainz had given him drops and injections. He said:
He paid Sainz 7,000 French francs for the homeopathic drops and 50,000 in fees in the first half of 1999. Sainz said:
The investigation that surrounded the Vandenbroucke inquiry linked Sainz to 51 athletes, of whom 33 were cyclists and others football players.
spoke of how "Dr Bernard Sainz looked after the health of Louis Caput's team." Three days later it repeated the title in writing of Cyrille Guimard. In 1975 Nord Éclair referred to Sainz as having "had several years of medicine and looks after the medical cares of riders." As Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard pointed out: "In fact, the good Bernard did zero years of medicine." In the same year, L'Équipe wrote "Dr Sainz of the GAN team will probably join Gitane
." Joop Zoetemelk
refers to Sainz as "doctor" in a biography and so does Erwann Menthéour, another former rider
Menthéour said:
Background
Bernard Sainz began cycle-racing in 1958 when he was 15, riding a race on rollers. He won a bicycle as fastest rider. He joined the UC CréteilCréteil
-Health:As of 1 January 2006, 27 pharmacies, about 60 dentists, about 60 general practitioners, 10 pediatricians, and a half-dozen ophthalmologists and dermatologists constitute the general medical staff of the city.Health facilities include:...
a club in the suburbs of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. One of his first training companions was Pierre Trentin
Pierre Trentin
Pierre Trentin was a French professional racing cyclist and double Olympic champion.Trentin began competing when he was 14. He continued racing when he began training and then established his own business as a leather craftsman and became one of the world's leading cyclists on the track. At 17 he...
, a future sprint champion. In 1964 he came third in the French students' championship in his home town. The winner was Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Jean-Marie Leblanc is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005, when he reached pensionable age and was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme.He became a professional in 1966 and rode until 1971...
, who became a professional and then organiser of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
. He stopped racing after crashing in a motor-paced race on the velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
at Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
Sainz first consulted a homeopathic doctor in 1956 after persistent sinusitis
Sinusitis
Sinusitis is inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, which may be due to infection, allergy, or autoimmune issues. Most cases are due to a viral infection and resolve over the course of 10 days...
. Sainz said:
Sainz says he studied for three years at the homeopathic school of St Jacques in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and at the national homeopathy centre, from which he said he qualified with the praise of the examiners. He has always insisted that he practised homeopathy
Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...
in treating racing cyclists. He accepts in his biography that his qualifications in homeopathy and acupuncture
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
are not recognised in France.
Horse racing
Bernard Sainz came to notice at horse racingHorse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
tracks. In 1988 one of his three-year-olds, Soft Machine, caused a surprise by winning a big race three days after losing an unimportant one for which he had been favourite. The suspicion was that Sainz had doped the horse to run faster, but nothing was found. Sainz said:
It was the training that he gave horses and the instructions that he gave his jockeys, he said in his autobiography, that made his horse successful. Sainz said he was surprised, with his cycling background, to see how lightly horses were trained. The accepted theory was that a horse should race and then rest for 18 days.
It was around this time that Sainz acquired the nickname Dr Mabuse, after the villain in a series of German books and films. Sainz was questioned in an inquiry into possible doping of horses. Horse-racing, Sainz said, was an area where he had made few friends and which didn't lack dangerous people.
Cycling
Bernard Sainz returned to cycling in 1972, joining the Mercier team when Louis CaputLouis Caput
Louis Caput was a French professional racing cyclist and then team manager. He won Paris–Tours in 1948, and two stages of the Tour de France. He was national champion in 1946.-Career:...
replaced Antonin Magne
Antonin Magne
Antonin Magne was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager...
as manager. Caput approached Edmond Mercier, the bicycle-maker behind Poulidor's team, and asked to bring Sainz into the team management. Mercier agreed, said Sainz, because he was already treating Mercier for his own health problems. Mercier had also brought in the insurance company, GAN, as main sponsor. GAN, said Sainz, wanted Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor
Raymond Poulidor , is a former professional bicycle racer. He was known as the eternal second, because he finished the Tour de France in second place three times, and in third place five times, including his final Tour at the age of 40...
, who had said the previous year that he would not race any more. Sainz said:
Sainz continued:
In Paris–Nice, the first important stage race of the season, Poulidor was 22 seconds behind Eddy Merckx
Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
on the morning of the last day. Poulidor attacked from the start, setting a speed record on the col de la Turbie that stood for more than 10 years and won Paris–Nice by two seconds. Next year he won Paris–Nice again and also the Dauphiné Libéré
Dauphiné Libéré
The Critérium du Dauphiné is an annual cycling road race, run over eight stages in the Dauphiné region in France during the first half of June. The race was inaugurated by a local newspaper, the Dauphiné Libéré, which gave its name to the event...
.
Sainz also treated Cyrille Guimard
Cyrille Guimard
Cyrille Guimard is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and then a television commentator...
when pain in his knees was threatening his lead in the Tour de France. The two had met three years earlier. Sainz kept Guimard in the Tour even though the rider had sometimes to be carried from his bicycle. Sainz said:
In 1986 he was cleared in an investigation into the trading of amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
at the Paris six-day race. He was questioned about illegal practice of medicine and held for two months in 1999. In 2002 police stopped him for speeding and driving without insurance on the E17 autoroute in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and found homeopathic medicines in his car. He told police he had been to see the Belgian cyclist, Frank Vandenbroucke
Frank Vandenbroucke (cyclist)
Frank Vandenbroucke , was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist. He was the great hope of Belgian cycling in the 1990s but a remarkable talent which appeared in his adolescence in athletics and then in cycle racing dissipated in a succession of drugs problems, rows with teams, suicide...
. They went to see Vandenbroucke and found EPO
Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
, morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
and clenbuterol
Clenbuterol
Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier...
. Vandenbroucke claimed they were for his dog.
The investigation brought out other names, such as Philippe Gaumont
Philippe Gaumont
Philippe Gaumont is a former French professional road racing cyclist. He is notorious for having confessed to extensive doping and explaining a lot of the tricks of the trade.-Racing results:...
, who rode with Vandenbroucke at Cofidis
Cofidis
Cofidis is a French company, one of the Otto Group's financial services providers.Founded in 1982 by 3 Suisses International in cooperation with Cetelem, Cofidis specializes in the consumer credit business of the 3 Suisses Group....
and Yvon Ledanois of another team, Française des Jeux. Gaumont said Sainz gave them only homeopathic treatments. Vandenbroucke said he was naive but not dishonest in using Sainz, but that he was impressed at his results.
Vandenbroucke, however, held a news conference in Ploegsteert, Belgium, to say he had always thought Sainz gave him homeopathic products but that he had doubts. He said Sainz had given him drops and injections. He said:
He (Sainz) said to me that they were completely legal homeopathic products. I wanted to trust him ... I was under the charm of Dr Mabuse. I may be considered naive but I am not a dishonest person. I want to believe that Mr Sainz only gave homeopathic care. I trusted him. Bernard Sainz proposed that he advise me. He seemed to be a strange man but was clearly a cycling expert. He impressed me greatly by showing me photographs of him administering his treatments to greats like Eddy MerckxEddy MerckxEdouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
, Lucien Van ImpeLucien Van ImpeLucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...
, Bernard HinaultBernard HinaultBernard Hinault is a former French cyclist known for five victories in the Tour de France. He is one of only five cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours, and the only cyclist to have won each more than once. He won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985...
, Laurent FignonLaurent FignonLaurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...
, Cyril Guimard and many other great sportsmen like Alain ProstAlain ProstAlain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur is a French racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, Prost has won more titles than any driver except for Juan Manuel Fangio , and Michael Schumacher . From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix...
. He explained to me that this care was based on natural methods and alternative medicines without endangering my health nor violating the ethics of our sport.
He paid Sainz 7,000 French francs for the homeopathic drops and 50,000 in fees in the first half of 1999. Sainz said:
- I have concerned myself with him since autumn 1998. Not, as has been claimed, to get him doping products. Everybody knows perfectly, starting with the policemen who have listened to me for a long time, that riders don't need me for that sort of thing. To the contrary. If they turn to me, it's because they've heard of what I have been able to do [mes compétences diverses] for the great stars I have cited.
The investigation that surrounded the Vandenbroucke inquiry linked Sainz to 51 athletes, of whom 33 were cyclists and others football players.
'Dr' Mabuse
Sainz's standing in cycling has frequently awarded him the title "doctor". The sports daily, L'ÉquipeL'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
spoke of how "Dr Bernard Sainz looked after the health of Louis Caput's team." Three days later it repeated the title in writing of Cyrille Guimard. In 1975 Nord Éclair referred to Sainz as having "had several years of medicine and looks after the medical cares of riders." As Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard pointed out: "In fact, the good Bernard did zero years of medicine." In the same year, L'Équipe wrote "Dr Sainz of the GAN team will probably join Gitane
Gitane
Gitane is a French manufacturer of bicycles based in Machecoul, France; the name "Gitane" means gypsy woman. The brand was synonymous with French bicycle racing from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, sponsoring riders such as Jacques Anquetil , Lucien Van Impe , Bernard Hinault , Laurent Fignon ,...
." Joop Zoetemelk
Joop Zoetemelk
Hendrik Gerardus Jozef "Joop" Zoetemelk is a retired professional racing cyclist from the Netherlands who has emigrated to France. He started the Tour de France 16 times and finished every time, a record. He won the race in 1980 and also came eighth, fifth, fourth and second...
refers to Sainz as "doctor" in a biography and so does Erwann Menthéour, another former rider
Menthéour said:
- I called the man whom all riders call when they have a problem: Dr Mabuse. For more than 30 years, the good doctor has been a central personality in the cycling world... and in horse-racing! He 'cares for' [soigne] men and horses without distinction, improving their performances with an efficiency universally recognised. A former amateur rider of talent, Mabuse looks after riders by love and horses by interest. My father calls him 'God' because of the fascination he exerts on those who approach him. But despite his powers, which are enormous, Mabuse has none of the exterior signs of a guru. The real power is inside. Everybody recognises his massive but discreet silhouette beside finish lines. He is seen but never mentioned.
Jail
On 11 April 2008, the high court in Paris condemned Sainz to three years in prison, the first half without release and the second on probationary freedom. He was accused of administering doping products to athletes and practising medicine without a licence. He produced no evidence of medical training at his trial.See also
- Tour de FranceTour de FranceThe Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
- DopingDoping (sport)The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is commonly referred to by the term "doping", particularly by those organizations that regulate competitions. The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance...
- List of doping cases in cycling