W52 - FC Porto was stripped of it's UCI license in 2022 amidst a massive doping scheme performed by riders and team DS Nuno Ribeiro, but the team - in some shape or form - is likely to return to the Portuguese peloton. Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, president of the FC Porto football club, still believes that some sort of truth will be restored.
Ribeiro, former winner of the Volta a Portugal and DS of the leading Portuguese team for many years, was suspended from the sport for 25 years having a big role in what is perhaps the biggest doping scandal in modern cycling: A court statement at the end of 2023 confirmed: "He encouraged the use by them of the substances betamethasone, growth hormone (contained in the medicines somatropin, genotroi and saizen), luteinizing hormone (contained in menotropin and artificially stimulated by the medicine gonarodelin), TB-500, IGF hormone, testosterone and insulin, as well as extraction and reintroduction of blood".
This was used in and out of competition, and several riders were also suspended for different amounts of time for possession and/or consumption of prohibited substances. Former team rider Samuel Caldeira admitted in court to have broken the rules in pursuit of better performances:
"It's all true. It was at the end of 2020 and 2021, to obtain better physical condition," he said only a month ago. "In recent years I was no longer able to achieve the strength I had previously, the opponents were superior and I resorted to these methods. It was of my own free will, I was not advised by no one."
The team was disbanded, but it's vehicles and some of the team structure was used to create the new non-professional Fonte Nova - Felgueiras under-23 team. However, whether it is this project or a new one, president of FC Porto - a title sponsor of the team - Pinto da Costa has said in a recent press conference that there are plans of reviving the cycling team. The statement however features disbelief over the ongoing trials and suspensions:
"For facts known to everyone and only a few know why and for what... We won too much. We didn't put an end to cycling. We had to interrupt cycling and as soon as the truth is restored we will return, we have agreed with Mr. Quintanilha (founder of the team, ed.). We will return to cycling to win."
Pinto da Costa anuncia: "Voltaremos ao ciclismo para ganhar" "Por factos por todos conhecidos e só alguns sabem porquê e para quê... Ganhámos demais. Não acabamos com o ciclismo. Tivemos de interromper o ciclismo e logo que esteja reposta a verdade nós voltaremos, temos isso…
