Former Volta a Portugal winner Amaro Antunes has turn out to be the eighth rider of the W52-FC Porto crew to be suspended by the UCI for doping offences.
The 32-year-old was given a four-year ban from biking for ‘use of prohibited strategies and/or substances’. His 2021 Volta win has been rescinded together with different outcomes on the race in 2015 and 2016, together with a number of different race outcomes.
His fifth place and stage win on the 2017 Volta ao Algarve is among the many different outcomes to be stripped. Nevertheless, he’s set to maintain his 2020 title in addition to his 2017 win, the latter inherited from teammate Raúl Alarcón, who was suspended for doping in 2021 and stripped of the 2017 and 2018 Volta titles.
Antunes, who rode for CCC in 2018 and 2019, had already introduced his retirement from the game however was handed a provisional suspension in early February which has now been upgraded.
He follows the vast majority of the 2022 W52-FC Porto squad in receiving some type of doping ban, with the suspensions handed down ensuing from the long-running police investigation, Operação Prova Limpa.
The crew had beforehand been essentially the most profitable within the nation, successful 9 editions of the Volta a Portugal in a row from 2013 to 2021 earlier than Antunes and Alarcón have been stripped of three of these titles.
Final April, crew properties have been raided by police as a part of Prova Limpa, with syringes, capsules, and transfusion gear turned up within the search. In July the UCI and the Portuguese Biking Federation (FPC) stepped in to ban them from competing.
4 months later, seven of their riders have been handed multi-year bans by the UCI and the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADOP) for a variety of offences, with one 12 months subsequently wiped from every suspension after the riders confessed to the costs dealing with them.
- João Rodrigues, 2019 Volta winner
banned by the UCI & ADOP for a complete of seven years to be used and possession of prohibited strategies and/or substances - Ricardo Mestre, 2011 Volta winner
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of Somatropine - Rui Vinhas, 2016 Volta winner
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of Betamethasone - Daniel Mestre
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of Betamethasone - Ricardo Vilela
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of a number of unlawful substances - Samuel Caldeira
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of a number of unlawful substances - José Neves
banned by ADOP for 3 years for possession of Human Progress Hormone
Three different riders at W52 in 2022 – Joni Brandão, José Gonçalves, and Jorge Magalhães – have been provisionally suspended together with the remainder of the crew in July, although they’re free to compete as of the top of final 12 months, having not confronted any additional fees since.
All three, nevertheless, are amongst a swathe of the W52 crew dealing with legal fees (opens in new tab) regarding Prova Limpa and the trafficking and administration of prohibited substances and strategies.
Additionally among the many 26 defendants are the seven beforehand suspended W52 riders, in addition to the crew’s supervisor Adriano Quintanilha, basic director Hugo Veloso, directeurs sportifs Nuno Ribeiro and José Rodrigues, and mechanic Nelson Rocha.
Former riders Daniel Freitas (banned as a part of Prova Limpa for 3 years for possession of a prohibited methodology) and Hugo Sancho (banned for 4 years for organic passport irregularities) are additionally concerned.
With three titles at Portugal’s greatest occasion now having been stripped from Alarcón and Antunes in 2017, 2018, and 2021, the query now surrounds the place the titles will find yourself, or if they are going to be re-awarded in any respect.
The UCI handed first place in 2017 and 2018 to Antunes and Brandão, although the FPC has by no means confirmed these outcomes, stated Federation president Delmino Pereira.
“We’re contemplating one of the best ways to defend the great identify of the Volta a Portugal,” he informed Bola Branca (opens in new tab). “That is why it is doable that, in some editions, as a result of variety of instances, titles is not going to be awarded.
“We by no means homologated these outcomes, regardless that the UCI rectified the classifications,” he stated of 2017 and 2018. “It is one thing that we’ll consider on the proper time when now we have all the knowledge.”
Whatever the resolution taken over these three titles, Ricardo Mestre, Vinhas, Rodrigues and Antunes are set to maintain their 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2020 Volta victories, with their suspensions making use of to different time intervals.
Pereira stated that the FPC is dedicated to vary within the curiosity of the subsequent era of cyclists coming by way of.
“One era can not destroy one other,” he stated, referring to Prova Limpa and its aftermath. “Now we have a variety of younger individuals, nice abilities, who’ve a proper to their career and their future. That’s the reason we’re dedicated to overcoming this troublesome second.
“It is necessary to know that intensification in testing can result in new instances, but it surely’s a danger that now we have no downside in taking.
“We have been the primary nation on the earth to implement organic passport testing in UCI Continental groups. Measures of this dimension can result in uncovering optimistic exams, however the second calls for zero tolerance. There are issues however we’re fixing them.”
