Adriano Quintanilha, the former boss of W52-FC Porto, and Nuno Ribeiro, who was the sporting director of the cycling team, were sentenced this Friday to effective prison sentences of four years and nine months, for using cyclists to dope, between 2020 and 2022.
The reading of the unprecedented ruling of the Penafiel Court took place, for logistical reasons, in the pavilion attached to the Paços de Ferreira Prison, where, in the last year and a half, 26 defendants were charged with crimes involving trafficking in substances and prohibited methods within the W52-FC Porto team.
For the group of judges, chaired by Pedro Vaz, the high responsibilities of the team boss, the then sporting director and also the team’s accountant, Hugo Veloso, in the doping scheme in the team that, for several years, dominated the main professional road cycling events in Portugal, were proven.
Cyclists, “the weakest link”
“Practically all the facts contained in the accusation were proven”, concluded the magistrate, considering that Adriano Quintanilha was responsible for “engineering the initial plan” to acquire the illicit substances, which he then financed, with the knowledge and in collusion with the accountant Hugo Veloso. When implementing the plan, Nuno Ribeiro made doping available to cyclists, giving them instructions on how to use it and indicating “techniques to reduce the chances” of it being detected.
For the Court, “everything went through” Nuno Ribeiro, “one of the fundamental elements of the doping scheme”. However, it has not been proven that the former sports director and Adriano Quintanilha used their “ascendancy” over cyclists to force them to consume doping products. “They did not abuse” the hierarchical ascendancy they had “over the cyclists to make them take the substances”, highlighted the presiding judge.
Even so, the court concluded that “the seriousness of the facts does not allow suspending the sentences” of Adriano Quintanilha and Nuno Ribeiro.
Hugo Veloso was sentenced to a suspended sentence of three years and four months. He also suspended the sentences of all cyclists, considering that they were “the weakest link in this chain of links to doping”. Two defendants linked to pharmacies involved in the scheme were acquitted.
The Associação Calvário Várzea Clube de Ciclismo, owner of W52-FC Porto and chaired by Quintanilha, is also accused and was sentenced to pay 57 thousand euros to the State and, also, to the additional penalty of banning the exercise of activity in cycling competitions, professional or recreational, for a period of four years.
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