MIGUEL INDURAIN has been offered $10 million by the ONCE professional team to make another attempt to win a record sixth Tour de France next year, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported yesterday.
The 32-year-old Spaniard, who has been with the Banesto team all his career, has been rumoured to be on the point of announcing his retirement since losing to Denmark's Bjarne Riis in this year's Tour. The Banesto team, financed by a Spanish bank, have signed 1995 world champion, Abraham Olano of Spain, but Indurain said after withdrawing from the Tour of Spain in September: "Some people have buried me too quickly." ONCE, sponsored by the Spanish Blind Association, reportedly promised Indurain that their French rider Laurent Jalabert and Alex Zulle would help him in his attempt for a sixth Tour win.
Indurain was upset when Banesto refused to invite his personal doctor, Sabino Padilla to join the team during this year's Tour de France after he took up a job as doctor to the Athletic Bilbao soccer club.
Indurain, who reportedly met ONCE team manager Manolo Saiz last week, paid for Padilla to join him in France.
However, ONCE might have difficulty fulfilling their promise as Zulle may have ambitions of his own to win the French classic.
The 28-year-old Swiss rider, runner-up to Indurain in the 1995 Tour de France, won the Tour of Spain and the world time-trial championship recently to make amends for a massively disappointing Tour de France.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)