Portuguese doping soap opera is back: 3 more top domestic riders suspended for biological passport anomalies
Cycling
Doping is, unfortunately, a poison that will always accompany cycling. Despite having left behind the darkest era, there are cyclists who continue to cheat and tarnish the image of the sport.
According to the Lusa news agency, cyclists Luis Mendonça, Luis Fernandes and Venceslau Fernandes have been suspended due to anomalies in their biological passports. Sources linked to the process pointed out that the three cyclists were suspended for the last quarter of 2024, without indicating to which years the detected anomalies refer.
The youngest of the cyclists mentioned is 28-year-old Venceslau Fernandes, who last season rode for the AP Hotels & Resorts - Tavira - SC Farense team and won the 2018 Volta a Portugal do Futuro. As a pro, Fernandes has never quite broken through and stepped out of the shadow of his father who had won the Volta a Portugal in 1984.
Luís Mendonça rode last season for the infamous Sabgal / Anicolor. Mendonça was one of the big names talked about in relation to doping - since the word about suspensions of Frederico Figueiredo and Luís Mendonça got out in relation other case. Back then the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADoP) didn't want to confirm Mendonça among the suspected, but now there seems to be a certainty.
Luís Fernandes hung up his bicycle at the end of 2024, after a season with Credibom - LA Aluminios - Marcos Car. The Lisbon cyclist spent four years working for the Radio Popular - Paredes - Boavista team, where in 2022 he finished 4th overall at the Volta a Portugal, one of the most important results of his career.
With the unofficial publication of these three names, the five cyclists mentioned by the president of the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority last September have been revealed: Frederico Figueiredo and Luis Mendonça, both from Sabgal / Anicolor Cycling Team, Luis Gomes from GI Group Holding - Simoldes - UDO, Luis Fernandes from Credibom - LA Aluminios - Marcos Car, and Venceslau Fernandes from AP Hotels & Resorts - Tavira - SC Farense, who are joined by Rafael Silva (Efapel) and Nuno Meireles (Louletano), who complete the list of cyclists captured by ADoP in 2024.
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- It's been like shooting fish in a barrel for the Portuguese anti-doping authority.
santiagobenites16-01-2025 - Then the article is stupid for talking about Visma's leaders in GTsvappaxbipmv15-01-2025
- Pain and death have long been distorted since the advent of mass gaming. Death is also a very ambiguous paradoxical topic religiously. I get that people get upset but when you pull your head out the sand and see what really goes on in the world, everywhere, anywhere at any time at every level, when you see certain ideologies, when you see what people do to each other, to kids for the sake of causes, emotions, perversion, kicks or money, the torture done by states, enemies, authorities or just sick individuals, this guy is not even a 6 on a scale of 10. To turn this into drama is like governments fighting plastic pollution with bans on single use straws. Please, these cases get treated, let’s focus more energy on the far worse ones that don’t. The last thing the world needs now is an army of Elons cherry picking examples of evil to hide the bigger picture. Flattening molehills on a mountain.Mistermaumau15-01-2025
- He’s just saying he wants to follow in the footsteps of someone like Roglic or Jonas, I doubt teams, races or exchanges have anything to do with his thinking.Mistermaumau15-01-2025
- He spent 0 races alongside Roglic, I don't understand what he's talking aboutvappaxbipmv15-01-2025
- I get it. Thanks.roadman5412115-01-2025
- His in form race weight is about 130lbs, he was about 120 last year.awp15-01-2025
- That TT was stage 16 of the '23 tour. He lost muscle mass after the crash last year that lightened him up a bit too much.awp15-01-2025
- That super time trial (I forget where?) he did where he blew everyone away was something special. If he gains weight that surely counts against him? What is the thinking on this then?roadman5412115-01-2025
- Yeah, maybe it’s just a Van de Poulidor thing, family is an important influence early in life and neither was very well rewarded by the Tour no matter how much they gave He’s more Van De than Poulidor and I think his main goal was accomplished, avenging the missing Yellow jersey, a GC win being off the table no matter how many Poulidor genes he inherited. He also knows that despite the incredible TdF résumé and respect his grandad (later*) had he sacrificed 15 years of it for a measly 7 stage wins and no real Tour recognition other than the rather ambiguously discerned title of “eternal second”. So on an emotional level I would understand he’s not losing any love here, if his team and sponsors accept then he must have been able to provide convincing arguments, that we’ll most likely never hear of. * Don’t forget the shit other riders put him through for accepting to be the first to be controlled for doping over which the others went on strike, I’m sure the little MVDP got some lasting negative impressions from some of the first hand accounts he got of how your peers can treat you when you don’t follow the herd.Mistermaumau15-01-2025