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40-611: Operación Puerto ( Operation Mountain Pass ) is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes . It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved several of the world's most famous cyclists and teams at the time. Media attention has focused on the small number of professional road cyclists named; however, sportspeople from other disciplines including football and tennis have also been connected with

80-674: A World Anti-Doping Agency meeting in Montreal, was reportedly interested in the contents "of the Puerto file". Le Monde had reported in December 2006 that they had possession of documents of Fuentes detailing "seasonal preparation plans" for Spanish football clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid . These plans did not specifically name any players. No other athletes had been named. It had also been discovered that Fuentes received over €327,000 annually from Real Sociedad . The documentation of

120-443: A 2013 interview. In a further doping scandal, in 2010, Fuentes was arrested by Spanish police as part of Operación Galgo (Operation Greyhound ). In a series of simultaneous raids across five provinces on 9 December, Spanish police seized a large quantity of anabolic steroids, hormones and EPO , as well as laboratory equipment for blood transfusions. According to Público newspaper, Eufemiano Fuentes and his sister Yolanda were

160-468: A chain of coffee shops in supermarkets, took over the sponsorship of the team. At this time the team was a second division team that relied on the public to sponsor the team. The team had the saying " Petit Casino- c’est votre equipe " – "it's your team", which signified this involvement of the public. In 1997 Casino, the supermarket chain that contained the Petit Casino coffee shops, took over

200-583: A list I could tell you who corresponds to each code on the [blood] packs." On the 30 April 2013 Fuentes was found guilty and given a one-year suspended prison sentence. The judge also ruled on a request to hand over blood bags to the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency . The judge ordered the blood bags destroyed, but the anti-doping agency has appealed. Additional appeals were filed by the Union Cycliste Internationale ,

240-554: A list naming other cyclists involved. Liberty Seguros withdrew their sponsorship, which left Würth as sole sponsor. As more names leaked to the press, T-Mobile Team asked riders to sign a statement that they had never worked with Fuentes, while the Phonak team suspended Santiago Botero and José Enrique Gutiérrez , who had finished second in the 2006 Giro d'Italia . Tour de France organisers ASO considered withdrawing invitations to Würth and Comunidad Valenciana . On 1 June,

280-494: Is a French cycling team with UCI WorldTeam status. Its title sponsors are French sporting goods retailer Decathlon and French insurance firm AG2R La Mondiale . The team is predominantly French. In 1992 Vincent Lavenu , who had just retired from professional cycling, started a professional cycling team with Chazal as the main sponsor. Lavenu had previously organised sponsorship from Chazal of his last professional team. This sponsor stayed from 1992 to 1995. In 1996 Petit Casino,

320-467: The 2006 Tour de France with a stage win by Sylvain Calzati , and a day in the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification by Cyril Dessel . Rinaldo Nocentini took the yellow jersey after stage 7 of the 2009 Tour de France after a successful breakaway in which fellow Ag2r-La Mondiale rider Christophe Riblon also took part and earned the daily combativity award . Nocentini retained

360-515: The 2021 Tour de France , when Tour debutant Ben O'Connor ascended to victory on Stage 9 in the Alpine village of Tignes. In November 2023, Decathlon was announced as the co-title sponsor of the team in a five-year deal. The team will be called Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale from 2024. Decathlon will also be replacing BMC as the bike supplier of the team, with the team using Decathlon's Van Rysel bikes with Shimano components. Citroën will stay on as

400-655: The Italian National Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency , as well as by the prosecution. On 14 June 2016, the original verdict against Fuentes was overruled and he was cleared of all charges. However, 211 blood bags from his laboratory are set to be handed over to anti-doping authorities for investigation. According to the Guardia Civil, the following athletes have been named. On 5 July 2006, Fuentes

440-650: The Madrid court in charge of the case told the Spanish cycling federation, the Real Federación Española de Ciclismo (RFEC), that court documents could not be used in the federation's investigations. On 13 October, Ivan Basso was cleared by Italian authorities due to lack of evidence. Ullrich was cleared by the Spanish courts on 25 October. The judge ruled that Ullrich and Basso were put under investigation without proof of involvement. On 28 October,

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480-573: The Spanish National Road Race Championships , which was cancelled after 500 metres. ASO wrote asking Astana-Würth not to take part in the Tour de France, which the team ignored. Jan Ullrich , linked to Fuentes by the newspaper, threatened to sue El País . The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said Astana-Würth were to be accepted in the Tour. The Spanish authorities lifted the secret of summary two days before

520-1073: The 2006 edition. On 3 July, Würth also withdrew sponsorship of the Astana team. They had planned sponsorship only if it were not excluded from a race. Six days later, T-Mobile fired Rudy Pevenage , directeur sportif, because he was also involved. On 21 July, the team suspended Ullrich and Sevilla, effectively sacking them. On the same day, Spanish cycling newspaper Meta2Mil listed codenames used by Fuentes which had not been deciphered by police. In November 2006, El Mundo claimed that an anti-doping laboratory in Barcelona which analyzed 99 bags of blood plasma seized in Operación Puerto found "high levels of erythropoietin (EPO)". This suggested athletes working with Fuentes had been boosting their performance in ways other than blood doping. El Mundo suggested those implicated had delegated their cheating to Fuentes, and would not have been able to control

560-510: The German news agency sid said nine bags of blood marked Jan , number 1 or Hijo Rudicio (Son of Rudy) matched Jan Ullrich 's saliva DNA. On 7 May, Basso admitted involvement with the scandal to the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). On 9 May, Michele Scarponi admitted he was Zapatero in Fuentes' files. And on 30 June, Jörg Jaksche admitted he was Bella . In January 2013,

600-578: The Kelme team in 2005. At that time he had been the doctor of the Kelme team for 16 months. He announced that he was retiring from involvement with professional cycling, citing health and family reasons as well as a desire to investigate retinoblastoma cancer in the Instituto del Cáncer de Canarias. Fuentes was arrested by the Guardia Civil on May 22, 2006, together with four others: the manager of

640-580: The Liberty Seguros team Manolo Saiz , José Luis Merino a haematologist at an analytical laboratory in Madrid, Alberto León, a professional mountain biker, and José Ignacio Labarta, who was at that time the assistant sports director of Comunidad Valenciana . In Fuentes' clinic in Madrid, 186 blood bags were found belonging to professional athletes and marked with coded names, besides EPO , steroids , and growth hormone . The scandal that grew from

680-491: The Operacion Puerto trial went underway, and Eufemiano Fuentes offered to reveal the names of all the athletes who were his clients. Julia Santamaria, the judge presiding the trial, told Fuentes that he was not under obligations to name any athlete other than the cyclists implicated. Fuentes stated that he supplied athletes in other sports with drugs and said: "I could identify all the samples [of blood]. If you give me

720-567: The RFEC closed disciplinary files against cyclists in the investigation. However, the RFEC will initiate disciplinary investigations on Manolo Sáiz. UCI president Pat McQuaid was reported to feel let down by authorities in Spain. He hoped teams would require cyclists to submit DNA samples to clear their names. The investigations into Spanish riders were suspended. On 7 March 2007, the case was dropped through lack of evidence of crime. On 3 April 2007,

760-579: The Spanish Guardia Civil . On 23 May 2006, Guardia Civil arrested the directeur sportif of the Liberty Seguros–Würth team, Manolo Saiz , and four others including Fuentes, accused of doping practices with riders. Spanish police raided residences. In one, belonging to Fuentes, they found a thousand doses of anabolic steroids , 100 packets of blood products, and machines to manipulate and transfuse them. The Guardia Civil found

800-493: The Spanish courts and world cycling's governing body, the UCI . Fuentes continually denied having performed illegal operations. He said that he did not work exclusively with cyclists but had other athletes as clients such as footballers and tennis players. In December 2010, a fellow inmate claimed Fuentes had told him, "If I would talk, the Spanish football team would be stripped of the 2010 World Cup". Fuentes denied having said this in

840-408: The Tour, Astana-Würth yielded to pressure. Five of their riders had been excluded by ASO for involvement in the scandal, leaving only four of the six riders required. Francisco Mancebo , fourth the previous year and involved in the case, ended his career, according to his directeur sportif Vincent Lavenu . As a result, none of the riders who finished in the top 5 of the 2005 Tour de France started in

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880-503: The arrests implicated well-known road racing cyclists and include former Tour de France favourites Jan Ullrich , Ivan Basso , Francisco Mancebo , Michele Scarponi , Tyler Hamiliton , José Enrique Gutiérrez Cataluña , Roberto Heras , Dario Pieri and large parts of the Comunitat Valenciana and former Liberty Seguros cycling squads. Alberto Contador was also a suspect, but was later cleared of any involvement by

920-451: The director of Valenciana, José Ignacio Labarta , resigned. Würth found a new sponsor, five Kazakh companies united under the name of the capital, Astana , and became Astana-Würth. ASO withdrew Comunitat Valenciana's invitation, moving riders to send blood samples to be analysed to prove their innocence. The Vuelta a España considered expelling the team. After El País published details of Operación Puerto , Spanish riders boycotted

960-597: The doctor also contained the inscriptions "RSOC" a couple of times and "Cuentas [bills] Asti" which most probably stands for Astiazarán, president of the club from 2001 to 2005. In the 2002–03 La Liga season Real Sociedad finished second in the Spanish League, missing the championship by two points. Eufemiano Fuentes Fuentes was once an athlete. He then became the team doctor of Team ONCE , Amaya and Kelme . The former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano accused Fuentes of being involved with doping. Team doctor of

1000-435: The leaders of the alleged plot. Also arrested were the athlete Marta Domínguez , who was released on bail after having been charged with the trafficking and distribution of doping substances, and Alberto Leon, in whose fridge anti-doping police found several bags of blood. Leon was found dead shortly after, the result of an apparent suicide. In January 2013, the Operacion Puerto trial went underway, and Fuentes offered to reveal

1040-595: The level of EPO they were taking. After studying the Barcelona lab's report, El Mundo described Fuentes's program as: riders would visit Fuentes a few weeks before a race and have blood removed. Fuentes would run the blood through a centrifuge , separating the blood plasma from the red blood cells. The cells would be re-injected shortly before competition, boosting resistance to fatigue. If haematocrit levels (volume of red blood cells) got dangerously high, they would re-inject plasma as well, enhanced with EPO, to dilute

1080-441: The names of all the athletes he helped doping. The judge, Julia Santamaria, told him that he was not under obligations to name any other athletes others than the cyclists implicated. Fuentes stated that he supplied athletes in other sports with drugs and said: "I could identify all the samples [of blood]. If you give me a list I could tell you who corresponds to each code on the [blood] packs." Spain lacking anti-doping laws, Fuentes

1120-450: The race leadership for eight stages, and Ag2r-La Mondiale also led the team classification from stage 7 to stage 11 and for one further day after stage 14. In 2014, the team had great results at the Tour de France , winning a stage and having Jean-Christophe Péraud taking second place in the overall classification. In October of that year, it was announced that AG2R would continue to sponsor

1160-447: The red blood cells and avoid detection. The Barcelona lab did not identify any athlete responsible for any of the 99 tested bags of blood. On 26 July 2006, five Astana riders were cleared by Spanish courts. The five – Joseba Beloki , Isidro Nozal , Sérgio Paulinho , Allan Davis and Alberto Contador – received a document clearing them of links to Operación Puerto , the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco reported. On 8 October,

1200-443: The scandal, although they were not officially indicted. Among the total number of athletes, fifteen had been acquitted by May 2007, while three had admitted doping or evidence of blood doping was found. In March 2004 in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Diario AS , Jesús Manzano exposed systematic doping in his former cycling team, Kelme . He detailed blood doping as well as the performance-enhancing drugs he used while on

1240-419: The sponsorship of the team and the budget increased substantially. Lavenu's team could compete in the big races such as the classics . The team obtained successes with Alexander Vinokourov , Jaan Kirsipuu and Lauri Aus . The insurance company Ag2r Prevoyance took over as the main sponsor in 2000. The team obtained further successes with Laurent Brochard , Jaan Kirsipuu and Jean-Patrick Nazon . In 2006,

Operación Puerto doping case - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-450: The start of the 2006 Tour, formally involving all 56 riders found in Fuentes' lists. Because Ullrich and Óscar Sevilla were in the lists, T-Mobile suspended them. The example was followed by Ivan Basso's Team CSC and Francisco Mancebo 's AG2R Prévoyance . ASO demanded all riders involved be withdrawn by their teams, even though Astana-Würth had received the support of the CAS. The day before

1320-528: The stimulant causing the team to voluntarily remove itself from the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné in accordance with MPCC rules. As a result of the positive Georges was banned by the French Cycling Federation for 6 months. On 10 March 2015 the UCI announced that Lloyd Mondory had tested positive for EPO on 17 February in an out-of-competition test. As a result, Mondory was suspended pending

1360-510: The team joined the UCI ProTour , following the signings of big cycling names Francisco Mancebo and Christophe Moreau . Fassa Bortolo 's exit from the competition had freed a licence and AG2R was the only team left vying for the license, as Comunidad Valenciana voluntarily withdrew, while the proposed new team of former Fassa Bortolo sporting director Giancarlo Ferretti turned out to be without financial backing. Ag2r obtained success in

1400-505: The team through 2018, at the 2016 Tour de France the sponsorship was extended a further two years – into the 2020 season. In September 2020, the team signed a contract with BMC as their bike supplier from 2021 for three years. The team will also be known under the name AG2R Citroën Team from the 2021 season after the French car company announced that they had become the co-sponsor of the team. The team experienced further success during

1440-536: The team's official car supplier. On 21 September 2012 Steve Houanard tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test and was provisionally suspended. On 15 May 2013 Sylvain Georges tested positive for the banned stimulant Heptaminol and failed to start stage 11 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia . Georges blamed the positive result on the freely available product 'Ginkor Fort' (made from Ginkgo biloba ). On 21 May Georges 'B Sample' also tested positive for

1480-477: The team. The investigation and the allegations he made led to questioning of several members of the team in April 2004. These included Eufemiano Fuentes who was the Kelme team doctor, Walter Virú the doctor before Fuentes, and Alfredo Córdova who was working for Liberty Seguros–Würth but involved with Kelme in 2003. An investigation began into the practices of Fuentes in early 2006 by the anti-drug trafficking arm of

1520-420: Was charged with "endangering public health". His main defense consisted in saying that the blood transfusions were conducted safely and were healthy for the athletes. This point of view was highly contested, notably by former clients and cyclists Jesús Manzano and Jörg Jaksche , who claimed that the blood transfusions were performed in dangerous conditions and put their health at risk. In April 2013, Fuentes

1560-445: Was indignant that only cyclists had been named and said he also worked with tennis and football players. On 27 July 2006, IAAF was assured by Spanish prosecutors that no track and field athletes were involved. On 23 September 2006, former cyclist Jesús Manzano told reporters from France 3 that he had seen "well-known footballers " from La Liga visit the offices of Dr Fuentes. In May 2007 Sepp Blatter , president of FIFA , at

1600-715: Was sentenced to one year in prison for breaking public health laws and was banned from practicing sports medicine for four years. On 14 June 2016, the verdict was overruled and Fuentes was cleared of all charges. However, 211 blood bags from his laboratory were handed over to the World Anti Doping Association for investigation. "Tour de France: Inside the Blood Doping Investigation" . Der Spiegel . 10 July 2006 . Retrieved 18 November 2022 . AG2R Pr%C3%A9voyance Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale ( UCI team code: DAT )

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