The story appears on

Page A16

July 16, 2021

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsCycling

French cops raid hotel of a Tour team

French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into doping allegations against Tour de France cycling team Bahrain Victorious after police searched the outfit鈥檚 accommodation and bus on Wednesday following the 17th stage of the race.

The prosecutor鈥檚 office in the port city of Marseille said the investigation was into 鈥渁cquisition, transport, possession, import of a prohibited substance or prohibited method for use by an athlete without medical justification.鈥

Bahrain Victorious said in an earlier statement: 鈥淥n the eve of Stage 18 of (the) Tour de France, Team Bahrain Victorious were subject to an investigation by French Police. The team were monitored by a number of officers following their arrival after stage 17 to the team hotel in Pau. The investigation involved a search of riders鈥 rooms as part of the process. Despite being unaware of the investigation reasons, the team was also requested to provide all training files which were compiled and presented to the officers as requested.鈥

Team technical director Vladimir Miholjevic added: 鈥淔ollowing stage 17, we were greeted by several French police officers. We were not given a warrant to read through, but the team complied with all the officers鈥 requests.鈥

The search was performed by officers of the Central Office on the Fight against Threats to Environmental and Public Health of the National Gendarmerie of France amid doping suspicions since last year, a police source told Reuters.

Bahrain Victorious has won two stages this year through Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric and Belgian Dylan Teuns, while Dutchman Wout Poels leads the mountains classification. Their best ranked rider in the general classification is Spain鈥檚 Peio Bilbao in 10th place.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend