The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that the UCI Disciplinary Commission has decided to suspend the Portuguese Team APHotels & Resorts - Tavira - SC Farense, for a period of 20 days, starting on 23 October 2025 and effective until 11 November 2025, in accordance with Article 11.3 of the UCI Anti-Doping Rules (UCI ADR).
The UCI ADR provides for the suspension of a team when two of its riders receive notice of an asserted anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) arising from an Adverse Passport Finding which occurred during the same 12-month period. In this context, the relevant dates to determine if the commission of the two violations occurred within the same twelve-month period shall be the period of time during which the riders used a Prohibited Method or a Prohibited Substance according to the Expert Panel’s evaluation of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP)1.
On 7 November 2024, the Portuguese rider Venceslau Fernandes was notified by the National Anti-Doping Agency of Portugal (ADoP) of an ADRV, due to unexplained abnormalities in his ABP in 2023. Then, on 22 July 2025, the Spanish rider Delio Fernandez Cruz was notified by the UCI of an ADRV, due to unexplained abnormalities in his ABP also in 2023
Since the results management procedures are still ongoing with the UCI and ADoP, the UCI will not comment further on this matter.
1 The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is an individual electronic record for each rider, in which the results of all doping tests collected as part of the ABP programme over a given period are collated. The International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent entity to which the UCI delegated its anti-doping programme while retaining responsibility for the management of results and the prosecution of anti-doping rule violations, manages the ABP programme in collaboration with the Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) of Lausanne, Switzerland (the APMU of Lausanne is associated with the World Anti-Doping Agency accredited Laboratory of Lausanne). Athlete Biological cases are prosecuted based on the opinion of an independent Expert Panel of the APMU.