UCI sanctions rider for sexual abuse for the first time in it's history - Shocking case revealed in Spain

The 36-year-old Spanish cyclist Edgar Carballo, has been sanctioned for one year due to a case of sexual abuse. The Ethics Commission of the International Cycling Union. The downhill specialist and five-time Spanish enduro champion is suspended from all activities related to the sport, as reported by Ciclo21.

Edgar Carballo sexually abused fellow professional female rider Ares Masip. The sanction comes after violating article 6.4 of the UCI Code of Ethics (protection of physical and mental integrity) and paragraph 3 of article 2.3 (sexual harassment) of appendix 1 of the same code.

The one who reported the incident was not Ares Masip, but a different rider through the UCI SpeakUp platform, the rider reported the incident that occurred in her van during the Enduro World Cup in Leogang (Austria) in June 2023.

The case goes back do December, the cyclist said that the sexual abuse took place in the "paddock" of the aforementioned competition. While she was sleeping in the van, Edgar Carballo entered the vehicle and tried to force her to have sexual intercourse.

After the aggression, Masip ended up pointing out that, at first, she decided to try to forget what happened and not to publish the complaint. But everything changed when he learned that Edgar Carballo had once again sexually abused another cyclist.

"Hi, I'm Ares Masip, mountain biker. In 2023 I was sexually abused in the paddock of the Leogang World Cup by a rider."

So began the young Catalan cyclist Ares Masip her tremendous story about a rape suffered and that she decided to denounce through her Instagram account back in December, where she explained what happened:  "The race had been very long and I had been sleeping in my van for hours. He came during the early hours of the morning and tried to force me to have sex. I refused from the first moment. He kept rubbing his penis across my body, tried to kiss me and kept insisting."

"I was just asking him to stop, that I didn't want to. I wanted to scream, push him away and leave. He covered my mouth, grabbed me by the arms and kept repeating that he would rape me while he tried to undress me," she continued explaining what happened.

"At first I tried to forget about it, to pretend nothing had happened, but months went by and it coincided in races and it made me more and more disgusted. Little by little I became aware of the seriousness of the facts and it has cost me a lot but I have decided to file a complaint. I do not know what will happen at the judicial level because it is not easy, but I have decided to make it public because unfortunately these situations are much more frequent than we think. I break the silence because I think it is fairer to build a fairer and safer society. Enough of so much impunity", she concluded at the time.

Carballo has now been suspended for a year by the UCI but it is certain that there will be serious legal consequences for the Spanish rider on the courts.