Bernard Sainz

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 Créteil 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.

Horse racing

Bernard Sainz came to notice at horse racing 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 Caput 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:

'Dr' Mabuse

Sainz's standing in cycling has frequently awarded him the title "doctor". The sports daily, L'Équipe 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:

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.