The president of the Association of Italian Professional Cyclists (ACCPI) described the Europol-led investigation into Bahrain Victorious as a "witch hunt" and criticized the police raids on the riders' homes and hotel rooms as "barbaric."

Bahrain Victorious has been under investigation by Marseille prosecutors since last year, when its hotel was raided during the Tour de France.

Prior to this year's race, law enforcement agencies conducted simultaneous searches of team riders and staff in Belgium, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia. On the day before the start of the Tour, the Bahrain Victorias team's hotel was searched by police in Denmark.

Europol confirmed in a statement on Friday that the investigation against Bahrain Victorias is centered on "the use of prohibited drugs in cycling," and Eurojust revealed that the search in Slovenia turned up "412 brown capsules of undetermined content and 67 white capsules of undetermined content." The company revealed that it had found "412 brown capsules of undetermined content and 67 white capsules of undetermined content.

ACCPI president Christian Salbert issued a statement criticizing the police investigation into Bahrain Victorious and claiming that "cycling today is beautiful and clean."

"We do not approve of the manner, timing, and spectacle of the incident that we all read about in the newspapers and heard from our youth," Salvato said."

"For the investigation to bear fruit, it should be done carefully throughout the year, not just during the tool period.

Italian rider Damiano Caruso, a member of the Tour's Bahrain Victorias team, admitted to Cycling News that he was raided by police in Sicily just before the race departed. Europol (European Criminal Police Organization) confirmed that the NAS unit in Ragusa and units in Rome and Brescia worked together in the investigation.

"I do not dispute the desire to fight doping by all means," Salvato said. [Indeed, recall that cyclists are the only athletes in the world who invest a percentage of their prize money in the fight against doping, and that the whereabouts system accepts restrictions on the privacy of themselves and their families to ensure that out-of-competition testing is conducted.

"But we cannot accept that they should be treated this way."

Neither the UCI nor Tour organizer ASO issued a statement on the matter before the race began, but UCI President David Lapartiento later told reporters in Copenhagen that he welcomed "this high-level cooperation" and added: "Afterwards, the police and the judge will will decide."

However, Salvato accused "all agencies of being silent" and seemed to suggest that the sport's governing body should have defended the riders under investigation.

"The ugliness of the past is in the past," Salvato argued, "and cycling today is beautiful and clean."

"If someone was doing something stupid, they would certainly be caught, and every sanction is in place to remove them from the sport.

The international testing agency has yet to sanction a single athlete in the men's World Tour since it took over testing from the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation in early 2021. At a press conference prior to the Tour, Lapartiento insisted that the lack of positive tests with the help of the ITA was "good news," but he admitted: "But I am not naive enough to believe there is no more doping."

LaPartient also added that anti-doping programs are currently underfunded. He said, "It is valuable, but it costs us about 8 million Swiss francs, and we will probably have to do more in the future."[31] "We are talking to the officials to increase the amount by 20-25%. 0]

Meanwhile, Salvato concluded his statement by calling for an end to the police investigation, referring to conspiracy theories on the Internet suggesting that the police were acting on a hoax tip-off and saying, "I think we will be hearing about this in the coming days. He said, "Let's put an end to this barbaric method and witch hunt."