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Teams & Riders Bahrain

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Usual disclaimer about translation loss;

N.B. Someone's telling tales?

My high risk velogames strategy is going to ***, I can't see them lasting the duration if this goes on much longer.

Journalist, TV 2 SPORT
French prosecutors said Thursday night that several objects had been seized from Bahrain Victorious.
The Tour de France team Bahrain-Victorious has seized mobile phones, computers and medicines in searches this week.
This is stated by the prosecution in French Marseille, which is behind the investigation of the team, in a press release on Thursday. It writes the major French media Le Parisien Thursday night.
ALSO SEE
Danish police search Tour teams

The latest of these searches was carried out by the Copenhagen Police and took place on Thursday morning at Scandic in Glostrup, where the Bahrain Victorious team lives before the start of the Tour de France in Denmark.

A team manager, a doctor, an osteopath and three unnamed riders have been investigated, according to the press release.
The investigation into the persons on Bahrain-Victorious is taking place due to suspicion of possible violations of the doping rules, it is further stated in the press release. On Thursday, French officers assisted Danish police as observers in the operation.
The riders and the other employees also had their respective homes searched on Monday, before traveling to Copenhagen. And something suggests that it is in connection with this search that effects have been seized. However, this is not explicitly stated in the press release.

The team denies that anything was seized on Thursday
When the news of the Danish search of Bahrain Victorious came out on Thursday morning, the team reacted quickly with a press release.

Here, the team wrote that nothing had been confiscated or seized during Thursday's search.
- The officers have searched all the cars and rooms belonging to the staff and the riders. Everyone has cooperated with the officers, and the search was completed within two hours. Nothing was seized, Bahrain Victorious wrote.
At a brief press conference Thursday afternoon, Bahrain-Victorious declined to answer further questions about the case.
- We have nothing more to say. We would like more info from the investigators. Just to be able to understand the investigation that is going on against us. At the moment, the team is fully focused on the big bike race and on achieving the sporting goals.

This was the short message from the team's performance director Vladimir Miholjević.
The riders were not allowed to answer questions related to the search. But there were no questions about the sporting, so the press conference was quickly shut down again.
 
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All these police raids seem a little overkill for the topic of sport doping, even if they were to find something.

In the past, that is literally the ONLY way they caught the cheats.

bahrain ridiculous literally exploded starting May 2021. Mediocre riders suddenly got good results (Padun) and somewhat good riders (Colbrelli, Caruso, et al) suddenly got the performances of their lives even at an advanced age - often a tell-tale sign.

Go police raids! Go!
 
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That they seemingly confiscated phones could be interesting. Hearing "The Wire" tunes in my head... Doping to be found now is unlikely but communication around it much more likely. Phones might be an eye opener if they are allowed and able to search them.

Curious to see if something comes out of it.
 
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It may be true that nothing was found on Thursday, but the Marseille prosecutors said their evidence was recovered this week in raids in 7 countries...

From Le Parisien: The Marseille public prosecutor's office reacted in the evening by specifying that it had seized, during various searches between June 27 and 30, in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Denmark, "electronic equipment (telephones, computers, drug dispensers) and medicines whose nature and origin remain undetermined or that are remains subject to prescription". In detail, the homes of the manager, three riders, the osteopath and a team doctor were searched, said the prosecution. “All of these seizures will be the subject of subsequent analyzes and exploitations”, it said.

Parisien says (without attribution) that Teuns and Mohoric are the prime suspects.

I dunno, as a French citizen, I can say that many, many investigations like this (not only doping) that start with dramatic police "raids" fizzle out in the end. But this seems to have more substance than, say, the Arkana raid. The fact that the Marseille prosecutor was able to raid premises in 7 other countries indicates that there's at least some credible evidence.
 
I dunno, as a French citizen, I can say that many, many investigations like this (not only doping) that start with dramatic police "raids" fizzle out in the end. But this seems to have more substance than, say, the Arkana raid. The fact that the Marseille prosecutor was able to raid premises in 7 other countries indicates that there's at least some credible evidence.

This is true. But, I can't remember a time when trust in the police & judicial system has been so, so low & as bad as it is right now.

We just had the champions league final in Paris where the interior minister lied about the cause of the trouble & then all the surveillance footage unsurprisingly was deleted. Now of course this is a different case but there's a 'stench' surrounding many of decisions higher up in France which is difficult to shake off. We're lied to constantly & most people know it.

The irony of course being I really, really do believe Bahrain (& the rest of the peloton) have their methods which are undetectable (& are against the official rules). But this police operation? Nah, I could be wrong but it screams half "public relations exercise" & half "scare tactics".
 
This is true. But, I can't remember a time when trust in the police & judicial system has been so, so low & as bad as it is right now.

We just had the champions league final in Paris where the interior minister lied about the cause of the trouble & then all the surveillance footage unsurprisingly was deleted. Now of course this is a different case but there's a 'stench' surrounding many of decisions higher up in France which is difficult to shake off. We're lied to constantly & most people know it.

The irony of course being I really, really do believe Bahrain (& the rest of the peloton) have their methods which are undetectable (& are against the official rules). But this police operation? Nah, I could be wrong but it screams half "public relations exercise" & half "scare tactics".
Definitely. The police and prosecutors love to grandstand for political reasons. This feels maybe a tiny bit different, but I don't have high hopes
 
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This is true. But, I can't remember a time when trust in the police & judicial system has been so, so low & as bad as it is right now.

We just had the champions league final in Paris where the interior minister lied about the cause of the trouble & then all the surveillance footage unsurprisingly was deleted. Now of course this is a different case but there's a 'stench' surrounding many of decisions higher up in France which is difficult to shake off. We're lied to constantly & most people know it.

The irony of course being I really, really do believe Bahrain (& the rest of the peloton) have their methods which are undetectable (& are against the official rules). But this police operation? Nah, I could be wrong but it screams half "public relations exercise" & half "scare tactics".

It's also some serious harassment if they didn't find anything... again. I'm waiting for something specific about what was found.
 

There's a problem with all of this (quite beyond posting pictures of an investigation online & publicly, which is questionable in & of itself), is the fact they're searching homes. Like literally someone's own house.

I imagine in the absolute worst case scenario they find a vial of EPO or some AICAR (most notorious products in collective psyche regarding doping). Yet technically speaking this means nothing. These products are not illegal to have in the house, they're just illegal to use in pro-cycling. Who knows? Maybe someone was given some EPO as a joke? Or someone else in the house used it once?

Willy Voet was a slam dunk because he was a Festina employee on his way to work in the TdF with an arsenal of doping products in his car but lawyers can & should tear apart any 'evidence' found in the personal domiciles of the riders which is used against them.

The list of banned substances is extensive & absolutely does include lots of 'over the counter' stuff found in pharmacies & online sites.
 

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