Oier Lazkano suspended for anomalies in the biological passport

After a year completely disappeared with rumors of all kinds, Oier Lazkano, one of the star signings for the classics that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe made last winter, has been provisionally suspended by the UCI after anomalies were found in his biological passport during the seasons 2022, 2023, 2024.

The reason for Oier Lazkano's blank season with Red Bull-BORA-hasngrohe comes to light

After a fantastic classics campaign in 2024 with the Movistar Team, at the end of the season Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, which was looking to strengthen its team for the spring classics, wasted no time in going after the Basque rider, who was ending his contract with the telecommunications team.

However, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's spring campaign did not go as planned, with no standout performances in any of the races. Among those who did not meet expectations was Oier Lazkano, who started his season at the Estrella de Bessèges, a race he abandoned in the third stage, and then competed in the Algarve as a prelude to his classics campaign.

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From there, disaster struck, with no better than 100th place in all the races he finished, as he had 3 DNFs in the 7 classics he competed in. After the Paris-Roubaix, he did not appear in competition again, and most strangely, his team did not issue any statements related to Oier Lazkano throughout the season.

A tremendously strange situation that led to a multitude of speculations, starting with the cyclist having some health problems or even psychological issues. However, in recent months, rumors began to point towards doping until finally, the UCI has issued a statement announcing the provisional suspension of Oier Lazkano after detecting anomalies in the cyclist's biological passport during the seasons 2022, 2023, and 2024.

We remind you that the biological passport is a document that collects a series of physiological parameters of the cyclist and monitors their evolution with the data obtained during the many anti-doping controls to which cyclists are subjected. By studying the variability of these parameters, indications of doping can be assumed, and even if the variations are very clear, it can be determined that the only possibility for these changes to occur is through the use of prohibited methods.

Therefore, despite anomalies being detected since 2022, the UCI has not been able to suspend the cyclist until now, when they likely have all the necessary data to initiate a sanctioning procedure, the details of which we will learn more about as it progresses. For now, the UCI is limited to declaring the provisional suspension while investigations conclude, although, if we take previous cases as a reference, when the highest cycling body takes this step, it means they have all the data to sanction the cyclist without any loose ends.