FC Porto left cycling at the end of last season, an official source of the “dragons” confirmed to the Lusa agency, after the end of the contract linking the club to the structure formerly called W52-FC Porto.
A source from Porto clarified that “FC Porto has no cycling”, as the contract with Associação Calvário Várzea Clube De Ciclismo – the club where the W52-FC Porto team came from – expired in December.
The end of the collaboration between the “dragons” and the structure led by Adriano Teixeira de Sousa, known as Adriano Quintanilha, was apparent in recent days, with the team’s pages being deleted on social networks and this appeared as Fonte Nova Felgueiras in the Opening Race, which kicked off the cycling season on Sunday.
FC Porto returned to cycling in 2016, more than 30 years after joining the peloton, joining W52 in a partnership that now ends, after the “Prova Limpa” operation overturned the doping committed last April years had been organized in that formation.
As part of this operation, the prosecution charged 26 defendants, including several former W52-FC Porto cyclists, the former sports director Nuno Ribeiro and the team’s “boss” Adriano Quintanilha, of trafficking in banned substances and methods.
According to the indictment of the Public Prosecution Service (MP), to which the Lusa office had access, the defendants include João Rodrigues, Rui Vinhas, Ricardo Mestre, Samuel Caldeira, Daniel Mestre, José Neves, Ricardo Vilela – all of whom have already had his suspensions serving sports -, Joni Brandão José Gonçalves and Jorge Magalhães, who are accused of trafficking in banned substances and methods.
In addition to these 10 former W52-FC Porto cyclists, Adriano Quintanilha, as well as the Calvário Várzea Clube De Ciclismo Association, the former sports director Nuno Ribeiro and his deputy, José Rodrigues, will also be responsible for the same crime, to whom the offense of administering of prohibited substances and methods.
Also today, Amaro Antunes, three-time champion of the Tour of Portugal for the “dragões” and the only cyclist not accused by the MP, has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union for “use of prohibited methods and/or prohibited substances”. “.
Source: DN
