Oier Lazkano

[pastronef]

The evidence is statistical and not direct so it may take years to get something that is strong enough evidence but the suspicion might be there early on. I know nothing about the methods but I assume they aim for at least 3 sigma or a 99.7% chance that he used doping. Still, methods have flaws and special situations may explain that his data is in that 0.3% interval, so I am not surprised of Oier's reaction, regardless if he is innocent or not. While Oier has still a chance to claim his innocence, his lawyers have a lot to gain too because this can take a while...

what I say is Wada and Uci can't rely on something like the blood passport. every time we see how it's very difficult, from both sides, to work and read it.

 

[Sciatic]

UCI test results are so conclusive that they need the guys phone and computer? What? Now Pogacar needs to bring a flash drive and his phone, laptop and tablet and pee in a trailer and still nobody will know for @60 days to @5 years if he is gassed and racing dirty? Ridiculous. Riders union should count samples from years ago as reference but certainly not actionable unless UCI makes everyone whole, goes back to amend all the records, retro actively pay back prize money and damages.

What riders' union?

 

[Sciatic]

what I say is Wada and Uci can't rely on something like the blood passport. every time we see how it's very difficult, from both sides, to work and read it.

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.

 

[yaco]

Apparently around 50% of ABP potential violations are let go because the accused has provided satisfactory evidence to not be charged. I'll also add the UCI needs to be 100% of an ABP violation because if they get challenged at CAS and lose two or three cases then that will be the end of the ABP.

 

[Unchained]

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..

Justice delayed is justice denied - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[pastronef]

Take Lazkano..issue in April and it took law enforcement and all involved months to get to Andorra, how does the saying go..

Justice delayed is justice denied - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ITA-UCI knocked on his door in April informing him of the passport issues. all people involved didn't spend weeks in Andorra looking for him. they travelled there once, on the day they needed to inform him of the issues and take his phone and computer. Lazkano had disappeared just for us, the fans.
he kept updating his ADAMS whereabouts daily and the ITA-UCI guys found him at his home address he filled in the ADAMS protocol obvs.
from April he had these few months to explain the abnormal values. then the UCI sent out the official suspension news in October

 

[Unchained]

ITA-UCI knocked on his door in April informing him of the passport issues. all people involved didn't spend weeks in Andorra looking for him. they travelled there once, on the day they needed to inform him of the issues and take his phone and computer. Lazkano had disappeared just for us, the fans.
he kept updating his ADAMS whereabouts daily and the ITA-UCI guys found him at his home address he filled in the ADAMS protocol obvs.
from April he had these few months to explain the abnormal values. then the UCI sent out the official suspension news in October

I certainly don't know, just read Cycling UpToDate, CN, couple others and YouTube channels all saying, where is he..what's his status? And again you could be right, I read stories to mean that he had an abnormal reading from years ago which was not acted on and latest abnormal test caused UCI or some jackboots to spring into action suddenly.
If you tell American law enforcement to go arrest someone for something inconclusive like a few years old abnormal test, they will toss you out of police station. And the chain of custody better be airtight, bulletproof from samples taken and stored for years and years. And some of these European guys might be subjected to crazy laws but if you are accusing me of a abnormal sample, dirty sample the accused should surely be able to see evidence during discovery process, including who took the test, where, where they stored it, how all that is verified, ect.
I find it insulting that UCI set some bizarre, arbitrary threshold for 3+ abnormal tests, some taken years ago to be call to action. So what were the abnormal tests from years ago? They needed abnormal confirmation by additional abnormal tests? One rider they popped recently had out of range test from 2013 or 14. Abnormal is defined as 3 times? Maybe they could just explain why they ignored the tests from years past.

 

[Unchained]

What riders' union?

The CPA, the only association for riders recognized by the UCI

The association "C.P.A., Cyclistes Professionnels Associés" is an international non-profit association that safeguards the interests of the professional riders

www.cpacycling.com

 

[Tim Cahill]

On Lazkano and the biopassport;

https://archive.is/20251105052040/https://www.abc.es/deportes/ciclismo/dos-expolicias-uco-cuatro-analisis-anormales-rastreo-20251104195157-nt.html

Six days after announcing the provisional suspension of Spanish cyclist Oier Lazkano for doping due to anomalies in his biological passport, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has issued a provisional sanction against another rider, Portuguese Antonio Carvalho Ferreira, for the same evidentiary method: the biological passport. This simple and inexpensive measurement tool, similar to a virtual health record at any medical center, tracks fluctuations in blood values (hematocrit, reticulocytes, hemoglobin, etc.), as well as endocrine and steroid levels.

Two cases in less than a week. This is not a coincidence or a string of successes by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent body that manages doping cases for various international federations (cycling, athletics, etc.), but rather a new pattern of collaboration between law enforcement agencies that had been tracking Oier Lazkano for some time and has led to a likely four-year ban.

The UCI's communication regarding the Lazkano and Carvalho incidents has been very similar because the detection procedure was alike. "The rider has been provisionally suspended in accordance with the UCI's anti-doping regulations," reads the statement regarding the Portuguese cyclist.

The sanctioning element is not a prohibited substance or a triple violation in the mandatory tracking systems for all professional athletes (Mohamed Katir), but rather a tool that compiles athletes' parameters, especially blood parameters, and records the results of tests performed over time. Its aim is to detect possible manipulations or alterations in blood oxygenation, the holy grail in endurance sports.

If irregularities are found in hematological values, the ITA refers the case to an independent panel of three experts, who determine whether to open a possible disciplinary or sanctioning case.

A real graph
"The biological passport offers a real graph," says a source familiar with the Lazkano case. "This tool consists of constant analyses and numerous controls that provide real-time monitoring of the athlete. Training and performance cycles can be analyzed. When there are abnormal results, with significant fluctuations, they constitute evidence for sanctions. Much more effective than trying to find a substance in a doping control." The ITA (Italian Anti-Doping Agency) hired two former police officers, one Australian specializing in intelligence and the other Belgian specializing in customs. The tracking team is completed by an investigator who has long been in contact with the Public Health and Doping Section of the UCO (Central Operational Unit) of the Civil Guard. The agents quickly established a working relationship, and the group holds meetings at the end of each season to explore potential targets suspected of doping, in this case within Spanish sport.
Oier Lazkano was on the list, as were at least ten or twelve other Spanish athletes from various disciplines under surveillance for symptoms of possible doping fraud. Since the seasons in which he was investigated, the former Movistar cyclist (from 2022 to 2024), who was signed by Red Bull Bora (2025) and dismissed last week, has undergone numerous doping tests. At every race, there was a doping control officer waiting for the cyclist from Vitoria to take a blood sample. Most of these samples were destined for his biological passport, the testing method used to detect future doping incidents.
The ITA (Italian Anti-Doping Agency) gathered evidence and conducted numerous analyses. Four of Lazkano's tests came back anomalous; that is, his hematological values clashed with the parameters reflected in his biological passport profile. They weren't positive, or adverse, as anti-doping officials call them, but rather notable anomalies deemed suspicious.
Lazkano was notified of the four anomalies by the UCI (International Cycling Union), and he attributed the results to the fluctuations caused by altitude. "But variations in altitude concentrations generate not only high peaks, but also low peaks," a source reminded ABC, citing this as an indicator of possible doping.

The computer and the mobile phone
Last spring, former ITA police officers and agents from the UCO (Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard) went to the cyclist's home in Andorra to inform him of the start of the proceedings. The cyclist's computer and mobile phone were confiscated, but after both devices were analyzed by the ITA, it was concluded that there was no evidence to incriminate him. He has only been provisionally sanctioned for variations in his biological passport.

The rider now has a period to submit arguments regarding his provisional doping suspension, which will be reviewed by a panel of ITA experts. If the cyclist is sanctioned for several years, the time he is currently serving will be deducted.

"The UCI has spent a lot of money on this agreement with the ITA," experts told ABC. "And it has strengthened the monitoring of all cyclists who show any abnormal parameters. You don't really need very sophisticated methods to do this monitoring. It's just a matter of running one test after another and comparing the graphs."

 

[Cookster15]

Surprised it says the biological passport is a simple and inexpensive measurement tool, similar to a virtual health record at any medical center? Simple and inexpensive? It doesn't seem like it knowing the confidence some seem to think it can be fooled or talk in the Pogacar/Gianetti thread about oil money to manipulate the passport or its monitoring by the UCI / ITA?

But as noted by others Lazkano is another small fish.

 

[Unchained]

Surprised it says the biological passport is a simple and inexpensive measurement tool, similar to a virtual health record at any medical center? Simple and inexpensive? It doesn't seem like it knowing the confidence some seem to think it can be fooled or talk in the Pogacar/Gianetti thread about oil money to manipulate the passport or its monitoring by the UCI / ITA?

But as noted by others Lazkano is another small fish.

This sort of makes sense.. But it all depends on how you calculate " inexpensive " if you need three tests over multiple years in order to sanction a rider, that's one thing. But UCI should have to explain who did the tests years ago, why they chose not to act on abnormal results, or why a 3rd test years later triggered reevaluation of previous test (s) from years past. Doesn't sound fair to anyone, rider, team, sponsors, fans, race organizations.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmlc8zfSaNo&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D

 

[Unchained]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=79Uf1iM1dhA&pp=ygUDR0NO


That's not journalism, that's a statement leaning into the UCI narrative and pushes guilt without evidence. " they must have a good case" about the UCI is ridiculous, given history and the present were arbitrary days of discovery are common.. UCI multiple times this year " oh yeah we found some abnormal tests from years ago " we want to act on now.. What was the reason for delays?