Luis Fernandes is super unsurprising, his discovery in 2022 of elite climbing skill at the raw, youthful age of just 34 was remarkable. Freddy Watts is not surprising for the watts, but surprising because he'd avoided many hits already.
That 2018 Volta result is looking hilarious now. Balarcón has been removed from 1st place, with the win being inherited by Joni Brandão, currently in the midst of a six year ban. Vicente García de Mateos was 3rd, he was only racing that Volta under a cloud after being cleared of biopass anomalies from 2015 to 2018 a week before the Volta started. He hasn't come close to contending at the Volta since. Edgar Pinto in 4th, João Benta in 6th, João Rodrigues in 7th and Domingos Gonçalves in 8th have all since been wiped from the results (Benta and Gonçalves for Boavista, Pinto for Vito-Feirense and Rodrigues for W52), with 5th place, between them all, being Frederico Figueiredo. Luís Fernandes was 9th, and Daniel Silva - then just returning from a ban for sample-tampering - was 10th (and has since been handed an 8-year ban for a second offence).
37-year-old Alejandro Marque, in 11th, might therefore be the first rider who can be considered remotely trustworthy in the results list then, and even then, he had a suspension between 2013 and 14, although that was later quashed due to paperwork issues but was leaked to the press, and then subsequently used as a pretext by Movistar to annul his contract to free the space and funds to hire Igor Antón out of Euskaltel's fire sale.
12th was David Rodrigues - currently suspended for biopassport violations - leaving ex-Team Sky man Nathan Earle in 13th as the first rider with absolutely no positive tests, suspensions or biopassport violations recorded. After him comes Xuban Errazkin, who tested positive for terbutaline in 2018, Sérgio Paulinho (who was involved with Operación Puerto), and that's your whole top 15.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram