Four riderꦛs out following raids, W52-FC Porto suspended by the UCI, threats to Portuguese anti-doping head
The now-suspended W52-♈FC Porto squad in action during🍒 July's GP Douro Internacional(Imageꦆ credit: W52-Porto꧋/Igor Martins/Global Imagens)
When the 83rd edition of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Volta a Portugal kicks off in Lisbon on Thursday afternoon, it will do so under a cloud of 🌄doping c🔯ases and police raids.
While the scandal-ridden years of WorldTour-level racing are – barring a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Bahrain Victorious raid or two – apparently far in the rear-view mirror, a world away 𝓡in the relatively isolated Portuguese racing scene, the Grandíssima gets underway with drugs and suspensions taking the headlines.
Just this week, riders from three of the top Portuguese teams were subject to police raids, with Luis Mendonça (Glassdrive-Q8-Anicolor), João Benta, Francisco Campos (Ef♒apel), Daniel Freitas (Rádio Popular-Paredes-Boavistಌa) all out of the race as a result.
The raids and suspension all came about as a result of 'Operação Prova Limpa' (Operation Clean Race), a long-runni💟ng police investigation led by the Porto Public Prosecutors wꦛhich has results in the UCI suspension of the country's top team, W52-FC Porto.
Amid the raids and suspensions, António Júlio Nunes, director of the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADOP) has been after receiving numerous threats – incl♓uding a shotgun cartridge in the post.
The latest raids, conducted on Tuesd🍒ay and Wednesday, targeted Glassdrive, Efapel, and Rádio Popular riders. Campos, who rode for W52 between 2019 and 2021, subsequently had his by his team, despite protesting that nothing had been found in the raid. Freitas, who was at W52 from 2016 to 2018, has been placed under an internal suspension.
Mendonça and Benta, meanwhile, were late scratches from the Volta start list on Wednesday. Glassdrive stated that the former was withdrawn to , while Benta is out despite protesting in a social meꦫdia post that he had a "clear conscience" and that🐬 nothing had been found at his home, either.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
๊The latest race content, interviews,🌱 features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Despite the controversy, all three teams will take the start of the Volta with a full roster of seven riders, with Glassdr🐼ive led by a trio of overall favourites in Frederico Figueiredo, Mauricio Moreira, and Antonio Carvalho.
One team that will be conspicuously absent from the race, however, is W52-FC Porto, the squad which has dominated the Volta for the better part of a decade. They have won eight of the past nine editions of the race with Alejandro Marque, Gustavo Cesar Veloso (twice), Rui Vinhas, and Amaro Antunes (three times, including an inherited win from his 168澳洲5最新ꦏ开奖结果:banned teammate Ra✃úl Alarcón, who was retroac♒tively stri🌌pped of the 2018 and 2019 titles).
The squad had been the main target of Prova Limpa, the operation started following an anonymous police tip in 2🐠021. They're currently banned by the UCI under article 10.2 of the UCI anti-doping regulations, concerning the 'Presence, Use of Attempted Use, of Possession of a Prohibited Substance or Prℱohibited Method'.
"The Portuguese Cycling Federation confirms that it was notified today by the International Cycling Union (UCI) that this entity has decided to withdraw the sports licence of the continental team W52-FC Porto, following the information received🍃 by the UCI on the process taking place at the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority. The decision comes into force immediately, so the team is prev♓ented from competing again," read a statement issued by the Portuguese Cycling Federation on July 27.
Three months earlier, W52 had been subject to police raids, where doping products – including syringes, pills⛦, and transfusion equipment &nda🅘sh; were found.
Lead directeur sportif 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Nuno Ribeiro (whose racing history includes a failed haematocrit test at the 2005 Giro d'Italia and a Volta victory stripped following a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:CERA positive in 2009) and a soigneur were arrested, w𝓰hile 10 of t♔he team's riders were charged.
Fast forward to mid-July and ADOP issued the suspensions of eight riders and two staff members, while separately the team's former rider Edgar Pinto wa🦹s handed a four-year doping ban by the UCI.
The same day, W52 rider 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:José Neves won a stage of the non-UCI race Grande Prémio Douro Internacional, celebrating with a 'shush' gesture, while a day later all of his teammates at the race were suspended by ADOP leaving Neves – one of just three riders to av💟oid a ban alon🍃g with Antunes and Jorge Magalhães – to go on to win the race alone.
Despite being down to just three riders, the team were still set to race the Volta up until the UCI suspension eight days ago, with team owner Adriano Quintanilha in Spain at the time seeking new riders to fill o🐻ut a squad.
Even with four riders and the country's most successful team – and the reigning champion 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Amaro Antunes – out of the race and s🎃candal a constant in the headlines, though,ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the Volta a Portugal will roll on.
The 11-day race begins with a 5.4km prolo🎃gu⭕e on Thursday and can be .
Operação Prova Limpa – A timeline
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Date
Event
2021
Anonymous police tip kickstarts 'Operation Prova Limpa'
Row 1 - Cell 0
W52-FC Porto monitored for months before raids
April 24, 2022
W52-FC Porto hotels, homes, warehouse, vehicles searched
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, ꦏand how to watch campaigns.
