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Monday, September 21, 2020
Preliminary investigations are likely due to suspected doping on a Tour de France team. Numerous medical devices have been discovered, including drugs and, in this context, doping tests. Cycling star Nairo Quintana was likely the target of the raid.
A strong suspicion, investigators on duty and already two arrests: just one day after the end of the 107th Tour de France, cycling is once again threatened by a doping scandal. The Marseille prosecutor confirmed the opening of a preliminary investigation to the AFP news agency.
Initially no names were mentioned, but the sports daily L’Equipe and the Journal du Dimanche were already quite certain: the focus is on the Arkea-Samsic team led by Dayer Quintana, brother of Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana, who also runs for the French . Investigators also monitor the team’s medical staff.
Prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP that it was a “small part” of the affected racing team. Therefore, two people were in police custody on Monday night, with them “many medical devices and drugs were found”, including in particular a “method that could be described as doping”. The team’s accommodation is said to have been examined on Wednesday during the French tour.
Arkea-Samsic CEO Emmanuel Hubert declined to comment on the developments, but confirmed the raid. According to the prosecutor Laurens, investigations are being carried out for the prescription of a prohibited substance and the aid and incitement to the ingestion of this substance.
The Rennes-based team had grown steadily in recent years and had been ambitious at the latest with the commitments of Nairo Quintana and Warren Barguil (France).
Arkea-Samsic continued the tour after last Wednesday’s raid. On Sunday the field arrived in Paris, Colombian Nairo Quintana landed more than an hour behind the winner Tadej Pogačar in 17th place overall, Barguil ranked 14th.
On this year’s tour there were no real suspicions, no data on possible doping crimes, but some astonishing achievements. The winner Pogačar and his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic in second place also fell in the twilight.
Because in the meantime, jaw-dropping achievements usually leave a bad feeling in cycling, and this was especially true in the context of the crown crisis: because of this, only half of the tests were carried out between January and the end. August than in the same period of the previous year, said the cycling anti-doping commission (CADF) with. The normal level was recently reached again.
Roglic’s best assistant Tom Dumoulin complained before the tour that “it hadn’t been tested for months,” said Romain Bardet (“It was forever ago”) and Thibaut Pinot (“no testing since October 2019”). in April. Concern. Bardet’s teammate Nans Peters even asked, “Do scammers have a free hand right now?”
