José Rodrigues, assistant director and masseur of the extinct W52-FC Porto, was suspended for 25 years by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority (ADoP) for possession of a prohibited substance and method following the Prova Limpa process.
According to the list of disciplinary sanctions of the ADoP, updated this Friday, Rodrigues will serve a sanction between September 7, 2022 and September 6, 2047 for “possession of betamethasone, ephedrine, methamphetamine, fenetylline, human growth hormone, IGF , EPO, amphetamine, corticotropin, hydrocortisone and glucocorticoids”.
Nuno Ribeiro’s assistant in the extinct W52-FC Porto, the team’s masseur is also one of the 26 accused by the Public Ministry (MP) for trafficking in prohibited substances and methods, within the framework of the Prova Limpa operation, also responding for the crime of administration of prohibited substances and methods.
According to the indictment, to which Lusa had access, Nuno Ribeiro and his deputy, José Rodrigues, “with the knowledge and consent” of Adriano Quintanilha, head of the team, and general manager Hugo Veloso, “bought, delivered and decided that their cyclists would have to administer “substances” that appear on the list of prohibited substances and methods in force”.
For Porto’s DIAP, “Adriano Sousa, Hugo Veloso and Nuno Ribeiro always acted with joint efforts and intentions through a plan prepared by them, of professional hierarchical dependency that the cyclists that made up the […] W52-FC Porto had determined to consume illicit substances and use methods that it knew were prohibited”, which it did in order to “obtain patrimonial and non-patrimonial advantages for the team”.
The three, as well as José Rodrigues, “seriously abuse their profession, violating the duties of action in favor of the sporting development of the modality and of the cyclists and the sporting truth, promoting and encouraging doping among athletes.”
Rodrigues is the most recent of those involved in the Prova Limpa process to be sanctioned by the ADoP, which on May 2 had suspended Joni Brandão, three-time runner-up in the Tour of Portugal, for six years.
Brandão was the last of the former W52-FC Porto cyclists to be sanctioned by ADoP, three weeks after the entity aggravated the suspension of Ricardo Vilela, who was already serving a three-year sentence, by seven years due to anomalies in the passport and having suspended José Gonçalves to four years for “possession of a prohibited substance”, in the somatropin case.
Vilela had been one of the six cyclists suspended, on October 4, for three years by the ADoP for “possession of a prohibited substance and prohibited method”, along with Rui Vinhas and Ricardo Mestre, winners of the Tour of Portugal in 2016 and 2011, respectively, and Daniel Mestre, José Neves and Samuel Caldeira.
João Rodrigues, winner of the Volta a Portugal 2019 and the Volta ao Algarve 2021, was also sanctioned to three years by the ADoP, but his sanction was increased to four years by the International Cycling Union (UCI), for anomalies in his biological passport .
The ADoP reduced the suspension of these seven cyclists from four to three years for having “confessed” – as happened with Daniel Freitas, former W52-FC Porto cyclist and defendant in the Prova Limpa process -, contrary to what happened with Brandão and Gonçalves.
The trials against the cyclist Jorge Magalhães, as well as Nuno Ribeiro, are still pending in the sports courts.
All of them are among the 26 accused of trafficking substances and prohibited methods within the Prova Limpa process, which dismantled the W52-FC Porto team, the great dominator of national cycling in recent years.
The only one of the 11 former W52-FC Porto cyclists who has not been charged, Amaro Antunes, winner of the 2020 Tour of Portugal, is serving a four-year sentence for anomalies in his biological passport, having seen the UCI retire, among other results, the victory in the 2021 edition of the ‘queen’ race on the national calendar.
Source: TSF
