Former W52-FC Porto rider takes 4-year doping suspension in Portugal

Portuguese cyclist António Carvalho was sanctioned on Wednesday with a four-year suspension imposed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), following irregularities detected in his biological passport.

According to the body that governs the sport, the penalty imposed on the 36-year-old rider takes effect from November 4, 2025, the date on which the provisional suspension had been decreed, until November 3, 2029.

In the same statement, the UCI clarifies that the results obtained by António Carvalho are also annulled for three distinct periods: between July 31 and August 21, 2018, from February 12 to March 6, 2023, and from June 4 to July 23, 2024. The federation had previously indicated that it was precisely during these time frames that anomalies appeared in the biological passport of the rider from Santa Maria da Feira.

“The case was resolved through acceptance of the consequences provided for in the Code and the UCI’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedure,” the UCI states, in a note confirming the conclusion of the case involving the cyclist, who finished the Volta a Portugal in third place in 2022 and 2023.

Throughout his career, António Carvalho accumulated several victories on the national calendar, with standout wins at the Grande Prémio Jornal de Notícias in 2015 and 2018: as well as two summit finishes at the mythical Senhora da Graça mountain in 2019 and 2022. He also has a stage win in the 2020 Volta a Portugal and the title of best climber of the race in 2014.

The cyclist’s professional path included stints with LA Alumínios-Antarte between 2013 and 2014, followed by several years with W52-Quinta da Lixa, later W52-FC Porto, a structure he represented until 2019. He then raced for Efapel (currently Anicolor /Tien 21) and, over the past three seasons, lined up for the Feirense team.

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Portuguese cyclist António Carvalho Ferreira has been sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility following an anti-doping rule violation for the use of a prohibited substance and/or a prohibited method due to unexplained anomalies in his Athlete Biological Passport (*) in 2018, 2023 and 2024.

In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules (UCI ADR), the period of ineligibility began on 4 November 2025 and is valid until 3 November 2029.

The case was resolved through acceptance of the consequences provided for in the Code and the UCI’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedure.

The UCI will make no further comment.

(*) The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is an individual electronic record for each cyclist, in which the results of all anti-doping tests collected as part of the ABP program over a given period are compiled. The International Testing Agency (ITA), an independent entity to which the UCI has delegated its anti-doping program while retaining responsibility for results management and the processing of anti-doping rule violations, administers the ABP program in collaboration with the Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) in Lausanne, Switzerland (the Lausanne APMU is associated with the Lausanne Laboratory, accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency). Cases related to the Athlete Biological Passport are processed based on the opinion of an independent APMU Expert Panel.”