Here is a new case whose cycling would have gone well 4 days before the start of the Tour de France in Copenhagen (Denmark). This Monday, the Bahrain Victorius team announced that several of its riders and members were searched as part of an investigation started during the 2021 edition of the Grande Boucle.
The Police Cooperation Agency of the European Union (Europol) has, in fact, carried out searches on Monday in Slovenia, Poland and Spain. The boss of the Bahraini team, the Slovenian Milan Erzen – linked to the Aderlass operation -, the Polish doctor Piotr Kosielski and the French physiotherapist Barnabé Moulin, residing in the province of Alicante (Spain), saw agents of the European police enter their residences by order of the court.
In a press release, the team announces “to cooperate constructively” with the investigators, and criticizes the choice of the date of these searches. “The team believes that the timing of this investigation is intended to intentionally damage the reputation of the team,” Bahrain-Victorious said. Investigators illegally provided information about the seized items, based on which an article was published in a professional medical journal”.
Bahrain Victorius has been in the sights of the authorities for a year. The Ukrainian Mark Padun had then won in a very doubtful way two stages of the Critérium du Dauphiné. His training had been suspected of having used Tizanidine, a drug used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
In July 2021, a preliminary investigation had even been opened by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office for “acquisition, transport, possession, import of a prohibited substance or method for the purpose of use by an athlete without medical justification”. Two weeks later, the Bahraini formation, then first in the team classification, had been the subject of a search in its hotel in Pau, after the 17th stage of the Tour.
Eight riders from the formation will start the Tour on Saturday in Copenhagen. After Landa’s 3rd place in the Giro, Bahrain Victorius is hoping for a first podium in the Tour de France with his two leaders, Damiano Caruso and Jack Haig. They will be surrounded by Matej Mohoric, Dylan Teuns, Luis Leon Sanchez, Jan Tratnik, Kamil Gradek and Fred Wright.
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