Teams & Riders Bahrain

[fmk_RoI]

I thought he went back to INEOS this season

Eržen (in an earlier version of the CN story) was quoted as saying: "I don’t know what kind of suspicions there are. We are following the work of last year and Rod Ellingworth, he taught us a lot and I can be 110 per cent sure that we’re working by the rules."

 

[Tim Cahill]

'Took some training files'

I like to think there was some on beat policeman stood in a hotel car park perusing through some of Padun's numbers, "Hang on a minute... look at these insane watts per kilos, these lads must be on some gear!"

 

[fmk_RoI]

Attention seeker that prosecutor.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1415618483157602315

View: https://twitter.com/JeuneGuillou/status/1415618483157602315

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah, it's either a PR stunt for him or they are just overeager. Compared to the kind of investigations that you have in Italy or Operation Aderlass it sounds like total amateur hour.

Sounds like just trying to look like the French are on the forefront of anti doping to me.

 

[BlueRoads]

Okay, this raid is rather ridiculous and there doesn't seem to be any substantial, but German commentators: "I have no idea why especially Bahrain, do you know anything?" - "No, no idea."

 

[will-10]

Okay, this raid is rather ridiculous and there doesn't seem to be any substantial, but German commentators: "I have no idea why especially Bahrain, do you know anything?" - "No, no idea."

What do you expect commentators to say?

 

[BlueRoads]

What do you expect commentators to say?

Mention that there have been accusations from French teams, anonymously, that there hasn't been anything substantial, yet, that it's not clear whether this is scapegoating and attention seeking, but that the Bahrain team has done extremely well this season and thereby drawn the attention to them. Something like that.

Like now they are talking about the money that is made with Lourdes - clear talk. Why can you not do that with doping?

 

[Skalman]

Very hard to believe there is nothing going on if a full investigation is launched, it has to come from somewhere substantial, not just rumor's

 

[luckyboy]

Don't really understand people are complaining about this team getting raided. They are actually trying something and police action is always more successful than the ineffective testing.

 

[fbjim]

Bahrain should rename the team Bahrain-ACAB

 

[fmk_RoI]

police action is always more successful than the ineffective testing.

Up to a point. A bazillion French judicial enquiries into LA produced sod all (and I won't even mention the Feds' failure to nail him) and in the end he was taken down by the anti-doping system, which is more than just testing.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Very hard to believe there is nothing going on if a full investigation is launched, it has to come from somewhere substantial, not just rumor's

Yeah, the Birmingham Six must have been guilty of something, there's no smoke without fire. I don't know why we waste our time with courts, as soon as the rozzers start looking into you you should be chucked in gaol.

 

[King Boonen]

Source?

BV statement:

Bahrain Victorious Hotel Searched Ahead of Stage 18 of Tour de France - Team Bahrain

On the eve of Stage 18 of Tour de France, Team Bahrain Victorious were subject to an investigation by French Police. The team were monitored by a number of officers following their arrival after stage 17 to the team hotel in Pau. The investigation involved a search of riders’ rooms as part of...

bahraincyclingteam.com

Vladimir Miholjević commented:” Following stage 17, we were greeted by several French police officers. We were not given a warrant to read through, but the team complied with all the officers’ requests.

I don't know the French system, but I would think some form of warrant would be issued if a judge approved the search and seizure.

 

[Ripper]

Same lads as last year. Those lot look dirty, lets throw *** at a wall and see what sticks, I'm all for a crackdown but this just comes across as police harassment.

Edit: It seems Movistar were also at the same hotel, hopefully we get a few action shots of it on next seasons documentary.

Along with more clips of how poorly they strategize and implement strategy. Lol when it comes to Movistar docs!

 

[Bolder]

The Bahrain flack said there was a warrant but "we weren't able to read it," whatever that means. He also said the riders were "remaining positive" ahead of today's stage.

Living in France, all I can say is that it doesn't take a lot to launch an investigation. Sometimes just smoke, not fire, is sufficient. Also, the TdF is one of the country's crown jewels, so officials do like to appear to be paying attention to doping accusations. The Arkea raid last year produced nothing; maybe there was evidence that was not strong enough, but the idea was to put a scare into somebody. It may have worked given how badly Arkea have performed this year, too...

 

[IndianCyclist]

The Bahrain flack said there was a warrant but "we weren't able to read it," whatever that means. He also said the riders were "remaining positive" ahead of today's stage.

Living in France, all I can say is that it doesn't take a lot to launch an investigation. Sometimes just smoke, not fire, is sufficient. Also, the TdF is one of the country's crown jewels, so officials do like to appear to be paying attention to doping accusations. The Arkea raid last year produced nothing; maybe there was evidence that was not strong enough, but the idea was to put a scare into somebody. It may have worked given how badly Arkea have performed this year, too...

Dont they need a concrete cause some sort of evidence/whistleblower/info not just the musings of some DS/manager

 

[ontheroad]

Bahrain and Jumbo-Visma are the 2 most suspicious teams arising from this years tour. Domestiques and sprinters riding up HC climbs like mountain goats.

 

[solo80k]

It's funny how Police is good at going for an ambush of some smaller teams like Arkea or BV.

But UAE, JV, Ineos... you aren't allowed to raid big teams.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Colbrelli is having quite the memorable tour;
Belts the favourite off his bike early doors
Outclimbs a bunch of pure climbers on huge mountains whilst going for flat sprints
Goes on the attack in the press Lance style after a police doping raid

Guilty or not, keeping your head down and saying nothing Piti style is the smart approach, far less entertaining though.

 

[zlev11]

time to call a spade a spade here with Colbrelli. he's climbed very well a couple of times for sure but he's been sprinting like absolute garbage. he has clearly lost some of his sprinting ability while gaining some form on the climbs. even then, he did well on a shallow summit finish in the freezing cold rain, conditions which he has always done well in. his only top 10 in a field sprint was stage 3 where half or more of the real sprinters got screwed up by the crashes.

they should've raided Van Aert's room instead.

 

[keeponrollin]

rest day is where it's at. Just like the arkea thing this will go nowhere.

This !

And if they want to actually catch someone; they send squads to every team hotel on the 2nd rest day, & secure them, & the buses, & go thru all the riders looking for needle marks.

 

[Fergoose]

The vast majority of police raids in drug investigations recover little or nothing and don't result in charges for drug dealing (i.e. quantities recovered below dealer amounts). It doesn't mean the people in the raided house are guilty or innocent, but you probably wouldn't want them living next door to you or looking after your kid if you had a family emergency.

Unless France has a justice system quite alien to that in the UK then there has to be a level of intelligence that is at least remotely credible to carry out action of this nature. But in matters where there is a PR element there is no doubt the threshold of information can be reduced.

With the somewhat farcical Padun situation (literally world beating form at Dauphine but not selected for TdF) it will be a dark day for cycling if neither the biopassport, testing or police investigations can uncover anything concrete about him or Bahrain in general.

If nothing else, a raid like this may deter teams from messing about on rest days and influencing the 2nd and 3rd weeks to the same extent as they can influence the 1st week.

 

[spredy]

Some of the posts here are hilarious. Colbrelli's power data is available to see, but most clearly haven't bothered to have a look or can't even start to understand what any of it means. He's riding hills in the 4.8 - 5.8 watt per kg range (depending on length) which you'd expect for a half decent pro.

The number he's putting out aren't 'destroying climbers' like you want to believe.

Meanwhile, Kenny Elissonde is doing 6 watts per kg up the second ascent of Ventoux for nearly an hour and can't catch the 75kg Van Aert who must have been averaging around 450 watts for that whole time to stay clear...

It's all good fun and games making jokes about who's doping and having a gossip. But if you're going to ignore the actual data we have, then all this is no more than baseless mud slinging.

 

[roundabout]

O'Connor's performance over the whole Tignes stage was really good. A sprinter/fast finisher/whatever finishing within 5 and a half minutes of that was also really good.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

time to call a spade a spade here with Colbrelli. he's climbed very well a couple of times for sure but he's been sprinting like absolute garbage. he has clearly lost some of his sprinting ability while gaining some form on the climbs. even then, he did well on a shallow summit finish in the freezing cold rain, conditions which he has always done well in. his only top 10 in a field sprint was stage 3 where half or more of the real sprinters got screwed up by the crashes.

they should've raided Van Aert's room instead.

How is that any different from his sprint results at the Tour last year? Colbrelli's best sprint results at the Tour have almost always been from a reduced field or on very long stages, and even then he often hasn't quite been able to match Sagan or even non-specialists like GVA and Trentin.