After having investigated a case of doping which culminated in the end of the funding of the W52 cycling team by Futebol Clube do Porto, the Judiciary Police advanced this Tuesday for more searches related to the same subject. This time, and two days before the start of the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta, cyclists from three other professional teams were the focus of attention from the authorities – one in the North, another in the Center and another in the South of the country.
As happened last April, in a police operation dubbed clean test, this time too, substances suspected of being prohibited from high competition athletes were collected, something that only later analyzes will be able to confirm. But contrary to what happened at the time, no arrests were made this Tuesday, although documentation was seized during the searches.
The action triggered by the PJ has already led Rádio Popular-Paredes-Boavista to decide to remove Daniel Freitas from the 83rd Volta a Portugal, after the cyclist’s house was searched on Tuesday morning, equating still the termination of the contract.
“I confirm the searches at Daniel Freitas’s house. Regardless of whether we don’t know if he was made a defendant or not – we don’t know anything -, because it was only at the end of the morning, we decided, for now, to replace him in the Volta a Portugal”, revealed José Santos.
According to the sports director of Rádio Popular-Paredes-Boavista, “if any fact that could be considered illegal is confirmed”, Daniel Freitas “is expelled from the team”. “The contract is terminated”, he reinforced.
More radical was Efapel, which has already parted ways with cyclist Francisco Campos. The sports director of the team, José Azevedo, confirmed that the runner is no longer part of the team, after being made a defendant in the context of searches carried out at his home.
“In the morning, Francisco Campos called me to say that he had a visit from the Judiciary Police, that they raided his house, and that he was accused. He explained to me what led him to be made a defendant – I won’t divulge that, because I think it’s something private and it concerns him”, began by saying the sporting director of Efapel.
After listening to the explanations of the cyclist, who was among the seven selected to participate in the 83rd Volta a Portugal, which starts on Thursday, José Azevedo opted for the automatic termination of the contract of the 24-year-old, who represented the W52- FC Porto between 2019 and 2021.
The case of W52/FC Porto
After having won the last Tour of Portugal by Bike, the FC Porto cyclists were tested in April in a hotel in Trancoso, in the region of Guarda, when they were participating in a sporting event.
Its sports director, Nuno Ribeiro, and a leader of the Maia Cycling Union, José Rodrigues, were suspected of managing doping to cyclists.
Even so, the team was getting ready to race again in the Tour that starts this Thursday, if the International Cycling Union had not withdrawn its sports license a week ago, preventing it from competing again. It was as a result of this that Futebol Clube do Porto suspended the contract it had had for six years with the Associação Calvário Várzea Clube de Ciclismo, which gave the name to the W52.
The team won not only the last Tour but the eight previous editions. However, he saw the 2017 and 2018 trophies withdrawn due to the use of banned substances by Spanish runner Raúl Alarcón.
In an open letter released after the suspension of the contract by Futebol Clube do Porto, W52 boss Adriano Quintanilha says he will continue to defend his athletes until proven otherwise. “Of course, anyone who has proven wrongdoing owes a formal and public apology, either to myself or to the club and its sponsors,” he said. At the same time, he claims to be the target of an “attempted character assassination”, along with his sponsors.
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