well, he got the news from UCI in April that his passport results were not normal, then ha time to give a reason to UCI. then officially UCI made the Oct 30 statement.
fellow riders have no obligation to say the met him, he probably rode with plain clothes. and normally met his family and friends. I don't think a journo would make the trip to Andorra to look for him and try to guess anything.
"nobody could find him" cause us fans have no reason to find him. his neighbours and friends kept seeing him I guess. his life went on. just not at races. also, training in the Andorran mountains gives you less chances to meet many people
he did a super 2024 season though, very very strong.
I looked it up and you are right he did have some good results in 2024..
I am just bummed that riders have no control over bio passport data. And now in posts above, new to me, they don't have access to their own medical records, it's alleged that riders are not given access to their test results.
From what I have gathered Andorra is pretty going on..not Sierra Nevada or Girona but a happening spervu
Most attempts (or at least the PR about attempts) to "clean up" cycling have come from police actions (Festina, Puerto) or criminal court cases not from testing. But teams and the pros are much less sloppy than in those eras so I don't hold out much hope for that unless a disgruntled former team member (not necessarily a cyclist) hands over some dirt.
The thousands of athletes involved would make your opinion just that much more depressing.
If law enforcement is seen as the most significant deterrent to doping bike racing is doomed. Look at most recent snags, guy racing almost exclusively in Portugal. In the US testing is being splintered by division in races done outside the federation and outside the preview of USACycling. So testing is diluted even further. And if law enforcement is a mechanism to catch cycling cheats, it ain't happening in America or most Western countries. If riders are travelling for treatments or mail ordering stuff from China, maybe increase the chances but unlikely. In Mexico and all over Central and South America many banned substances can be purchased without a prescription at a pharmacy or veterinary supply. Your reference of Puerto and Festina is excellent..Festina hasn't been a thing since 2001..I am complaining and moaning about UCI being a few years behind, catching guys with abnormal values from 2018 for example.. Imagine if @20, 25 years ago was seen as effective policing in sports.
If gravel for example in the US continues to grow, gain popularity and it's done by parties outside federation were is the testing protocol setup? Belgian Waffle, Lifetime, other big races make no noise, notice about emphasis on drug free racing.
If catching a 36 year old conti guy from Portugal for an anomaly, not a straight dirty test from 2018 is seen as success by UCI or anyone else, system should be abandoned completely.
UCI needs tests that take hours or days for turn around not years or decades.
And it's looking like latest riders are on 3 strikes your out..UCI reporting that 3 or 4 popped riders had 3 passport abnormalities over multiple years.. So were they waiting for a 3rd test to come back ?
Take Lazkano..issue in April and it took law enforcement and all involved months to get to Andorra, how does the saying go..
en.wikipedia.org