Dhe French police searched the Bahrain Victorious team’s hotel in Pau on Wednesday evening as part of the Tour de France. The team confirmed this in an official statement on Thursday. The team has “committed itself to the highest level of professionalism and compliance with all regulations and will always cooperate in a professional manner,” the team wrote.
The approach has had an impact on driver recovery and meal planning, and as a professional team, the well-being of our team is a top priority, it said. The search was carried out by the police of the Central Office for the Fight against Violations against the Environment and Public Health (Oclaesp), the AFP news agency had previously learned from a close source.
“It wasn’t anything special, we had a visit from the police. They asked for the drivers’ training documents, checked the bus, and that was it, ”said team boss Milan Erzen to the specialist portal Cyclingnews, which had previously reported on the search. The drivers were “disturbed for an hour. You didn’t tell us what the reason for the visit was, but we’ll find out today through our lawyers. “
Mo. – Fr. at 4 pm; Sa. – So. at 6 p.m.
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Bahrain Victorious also confirmed that the hotel rooms of the drivers and staff had been searched. There were no arrests. The Movistar team, which was in the same hotel in Pau, was not searched by the authorities, according to the Cyclingnews report. According to information from the specialist portal, up to 50 police officers were on duty.
The team from the Kingdom has already achieved two stage successes in the 108th Grand Loop, Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) and Dylan Teuns (Belgium) triumphed on sections seven and eight. The Dutchman Wout Poels also led the mountain classification before the 18th stage on Thursday, and Bahrain Victorious was also in the lead in the team classification before the fourth from last section.
Team boss Erzen had to defend his team in June after doping allegations had been reported in the French media. According to a report by Le Parisien, two people, including a team principal, had raised concerns following Bahrain Victorious’s recent performances at both the Giro d’Italia and the Criterium du Dauphine. “I’m not interested in what other team bosses say. He can tell anything he wants, ”said Erzen.
Erzen had already been observed in the past by the world association UCI for alleged connections to “Operation Aderlass”. According to the former Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Dürr, the blood doping practices of Erfurt sports doctor Mark S. were uncovered during this.
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