"All tests were negative": Movistar defends itself after the sanction against Lazkano

‘We knew nothing’. This is essentially what is distilled from the statement issued by Abarca Sports, the company that owns the Movistar team, after the huge uproar caused by the announcement of Oier Lazkano's suspension by the UCI after presenting anomalies in his biological passport.

“All tests returned a negative result” Movistar excuses itself regarding Lazkano's suspension

The fact that the UCI's statement announcing Oier Lazkano's suspension warned that the anomalies in the biological passport, which ultimately led to the sanctioning procedure, had been detected since the 2022 season has led to many looking at the Movistar team wondering if it was something orchestrated within the squad, mainly due to the recent coincidence with the sanction of the also former cyclist of the team, Vinicius Rangel, for failures in location for control tests.

The telecommunications team had no choice but to issue a statement on the matter, but in an effort to avoid any association with the team, it did so not in the name of Movistar Team but through Abarca Sport, the managing company that owns the team.

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In any case, the contribution of this statement is nothing other than what was expected, pointing out that the team learned of Oier Lazkano's suspension yesterday afternoon through the same public notification made by the UCI.

Of course, they seek to make it clear that during the three seasons in which Lazkano was with the team and during which the UCI claims to have detected the anomalous variations in Lazkano's biological passport, the cyclist did not test positive in any of the multiple tests he underwent, neither the official ones by the UCI nor in the internal controls, making it impossible to suspect any anomalies like those detected by the UCI.

The statement from Abarca Sports concludes by reiterating the team's commitment to a clean and transparent sport, as well as indicating the intention to double the efforts and anti-doping measures that the team has been promoting.

A completely neutral communication, as is often the case in these situations, which serves as a way to “pass the buck.” In any case, it is curious that two sanctions to former cyclists of the team coincided in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, it does not seem likely that Movistar was aware of what could happen with Oier Lazkano, as until the last moment, they tried to retain the cyclist who revealed his classic skills by having a fantastic spring.