Red Bull - BORA and Movistar react to Oier Lazkano's UCI suspension - "It was materially impossible to know"
Cycling
It can't be said that the UCI's announcement of the suspension of Oier Lazkano came as a major surprise, however it has now led to major consequences to all involved. The Spaniard has been released by Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe who has had to issue a statement over their riders; whilst Movistar has also had to issue a statement due to the biological passport abnormalities in the years Lazkano raced there.
Movistar specifically had the most explanations to give. Lazkano's abnormalities took place from 2022 to 2024, specifically the three years he raced for Movistar, and none with other tams. "During the 3 seasons of contractual relationship with Mr. Lazkano (of the 5 to which the UCI study refers) all the controls to which he was subjected by the different national and international organizations, as well as internal to the team itself, yielded a negative result," Abarca Sports, the company that owns Movistar Team, has said in a press release issued.
The details aren't fully clear, and it's not known why Lazkano was only provisionally suspended at this point in time taking into consideration that the unusual values have been recorded for over three years now. But the Spanish team claims to not have previous knowledge of this. "By virtue of this, it was materially impossible to know, or even intuit, any anomaly such as the one now presented in the procedure opened by the International Cycling Union."
After the suspension of another former rider, Vinicius Rangel, also earlier this week - although for very different reasons - the Spanish team are having to make a strong stance and try to separate themselves from these cases: "Abarca Sports reiterates once again with absolute firmness its unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport. To this end, we will redouble with absolute determination all the efforts, controls and measures that we have been promoting to date".
BORA fire Lazkano
In a separate statement, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe have confirmed the departure of the Spaniard from their team. The statement was kept very short and the team has added no details on the matter: “We confirm that Oier Lazkano will no longer be part of our team. This follows the decision of the UCI to provisionally suspend him. The matter concerns the seasons 2022-2024 – a time before he joined our team.”
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