Vicente Belda

Vicente Belda (born September 12, 1954 in Alfafara, Alicante; although he has lived since childhood in Cocentaina, in the same province) is a Spanish cyclist, professional between 1978 and 1988.

His son David Belda was also a professional cyclist and is also an engineer.

Biography

Professional cyclist

His greatest achievement during his sporting life is the third place he achieved in the 1981 Vuelta a España, behind Giovanni Battaglin and Pedro Muñoz. He also achieved stage wins in the Vuelta and the Giro.

Sports director

Kelme/Valencian Community

After retiring from professional cycling, he continued to be linked to the world of bicycles, becoming sports director of the Kelme team (from 2004, Comunitat Valenciana), until he disappeared in 2006 as a result of the involvement of practically the entire team. (cyclists, directors and doctors) in Operation Puerto.

Pine Helper

In 1995 he joined the Kelme team as assistant director to Álvaro Pino, sports director of the green and white team. After a hiatus in 1996, he returned to the team in 1997, where he remained as Pino's assistant until his departure to Phonak after the 1999 season.

Main director and successes

In 2000 he became the main sports director of the Kelme team. In his first season at the helm, the team won two stages in the Tour de France (one with Santiago Botero and another with Javier Otxoa), as well as the mountain classification (with Botero, after Otxoa also took it).

In 2001, Kelme cyclist Óscar Sevilla was second in the Vuelta a España, after in the last stage (a time trial in Madrid) he lost the gold jersey, which went to Ángel Casero (from Festina. This triumph Casero's case was a source of controversy when it was discovered that the controversial Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, Kelme's chief medical officer (although he also privately treated other athletes, including cyclists from other teams), had left Casero's telephone answering machine telling him that you already knowwould be prepared for him to win the Vuelta in the Madrid time trial. Given the suspicions that it was a doping matter that Fuentes facilitated a cyclist from another team (Casero) against one of his own team (Sevilla), Fuentes said that he was referring to some connecting rods and that it was a message that he had transmitted on behalf of his Italian colleague Luigi Cecchini. Although Belda showed his anger at the case, Fuentes remained the team's chief medical officer.

In 2002, after Seville won the white jersey for best young person in the Tour de France, Kelme was presented as a favorite to win the Vuelta a España with the rider from La Mancha. However, although a Kelme cyclist won the Vuelta (Aitor González), the victory was again controversial, although in this case due to the internal war experienced in the team between its two leaders, Sevilla (who a priori was the leader of the ranks) and González (who attacked Sevilla in the Angliru when he was leader, benefiting Roberto Heras, of the US Postal). Sevilla was finally fourth overall, after a sequence of misfortunes in the last time trial caused him to lose a lot of time, thus knocking him off the final podium. Thus, although Aitor González finally won the Vuelta by overtaking Heras in the last stage (the time trial ending at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium), the victory was marred by that internal war and Belda's attempts to put peace in her own squad. Aitor left the team (where his contract was ending) to sign for the powerful Italian Fassa Bortolo.

In 2003, cyclist Jesús Manzano fainted in the Tour de France while escaping, requiring hospital care; This fact would later acquire great relevance for Belda and his team. In the Vuelta a España the team obtained two stage victories and the combined victory through Alejandro Valverde, a true revelation of the season by adding his successes in the Vuelta to a season full of triumphs in one-day races.

Apple tree and the decline

In 2004, former team cyclist Jesús Manzano gave an extensive interview to the newspaper As, in which he detailed his doping practices during his stay in the Kelme team, also stating that it was a practice systematic within the team and organized by those responsible (medical and sports) for the training. Belda made the following statements regarding Manzano's revelations:

"I get nauseous. Little can I say about it, since it doesn't tell the truth and it can't put the whole platoon in the same sack. The doping is clear that it exists in all sports, but not all athletes are doped or are drug addicts as insinuating.. "

"It's like they put a slab on me. You'll tell me that I can tell my runners right now to plan the race and the favor he's doing to cycling with those comments. Team lawyers have already started working on the issue. "

As a consequence of Manzano's revelations, the Tour de France organization did not accept the team at the starting line either that year or the following year, and was also left out of the UCI ProTour (a circuit that from then on brought together the best teams) created in 2005 and, therefore, relegated to second-tier races (of the Continental Circuit) and a few of the highest category (ProTour) in case of obtaining an express invitation from the organization, a circumstance that only occurred in the Vuelta to Spain.

Operation Port

First reaction to arrests

On May 23, 2006, among others, José Ignacio Labarta (deputy director of the Comunidad Valenciana) and doctor Eufemiano Fuentes (former medical chief of Kelme and brother of Yolanda Fuentes, medical chief of the Comunidad Valenciana) were arrested by the Civil Guard. at that time), for his involvement in Operation Puerto, an anti-doping investigation that uncovered an organized doping network for elite athletes. Given these arrests and the incessant rumors about the involvement of his team in the doping plot, Belda said the following:

"These arrests are a backslash against cycling. If we were already on suspicion, we only lacked this.". Belda thus referred to the suspicions of doping that already existed on his team after the revelations of his former cyclist Jesús Manzano to the newspaper As in 2004 (confirmed in this operation, two years later).

Plante in the Spanish Championship

On June 25 and 26, the newspaper El País published part of the investigation by the Civil Guard, a leak that revealed that almost all the cyclists in the Comunitat Valenciana were clients of the doping network (with the generic name los green, due to the color of his jersey).

The same day that the first part of this exclusive was published, the Spanish Road Championship was to be held, which was suspended due to a boycott by cyclists (in protest of the leaks to the press) promoted by a cyclist from the Levantine team. Belda himself supported this plan.

The telephone conversations with Fuentes

Belda appeared in the summary of the Operation, revealing compromising telephone conversations with Eufemiano Fuentes in which Belda's knowledge and consent to the widespread doping in his training through the Fuentes network was evident.

Request for DNA testing

Belda and her cyclists offered to give blood samples to compare their DNA with that of the blood bags seized by the Civil Guard during searches.

Disappearance of the team

The Tour de France organization withdrew its invitation to the team as a result of Operation Puerto. The Comunitat Valenciana, which had not been in the Grande Boucle in 2004 and 2005 due to Manzano's statements, had obtained an invitation (necessary in its case, since it was not a ProTour team) to participate three times. years later in the French round, which finally did not happen due to the withdrawal of said invitation.

Shortly after, the Vuelta a España also decided not to invite the Comunitat Valenciana. Faced with this decision, the Generalitat Valenciana decided to withdraw its support for the team (since, excluded from the main races, it could not promote said community in renowned events), which precipitated the disappearance of the Levantine team.

No criminal consequences

As doping was not a crime in Spain according to the legislation in force at the time, the judicial process focused on whether a crime against public health had been committed. Thus, Operation Puerto had no criminal consequences for Belda.

Fuerteventura-Canarias Team

In 2007 he became an advisor to the new Fuerteventura-Canarias Team.

In 2008 he became director of the Fuerteventura-Canarias Team in the elite and sub-23 categories, attached to the Valencian Community Cycling Federation (FCCV). Subsequently he was signed by the elite Colombian UCI team Lotería de Boyacá, with which he debuted on July 16, 2008 in the Girardot Classic, in a total of five stages.

Since January 1, 2009, he became the sports director of the Boyacá Es Para Vivirla cycling team, based in Colombia.

Palmarés

Great Rounds and World Championships

During his sporting career he has achieved the following positions in the Grand Tours and in the World Road Championships:

Race	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988
Giro de Italia	-	-	-	-	Ab.	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tour de France	-	-	20th	38o	-	-	-	-	-	-	75.o
Return to Spain	Twenty-first	Seventeenth	10th	3o	18th	9th	8th	18th	30.o	6.o	68.o
World on Route	Ab.	-	-	-	Ab.	Ab.	Ab.	-	-	-	-

- Don't participate
Ab: abandonment

Prizes, recognitions and distinctions

• Best Sports Technician of 2000 at the Provincial Sports Awards of the Provincial Council of Alicante