Former Portuguese Volta winner Amaro Antunes became the eighth rider on the W52-FC Porto team to be suspended by the UCI for doping violations.

The 32-year-old was banned from cycling for four years for "using prohibited methods and/or prohibited substances." His 2021 Volta win was revoked, along with his other results in the 2015 and 2016 races.

His fifth place and stage win in the 2017 Volta ao Algarve are among the other results to be stripped. The latter was inherited from teammate Raul Alarcon, who was suspended for doping in 2021 and stripped of the 2017 and 2018 Volta titles.

Antunes, who rode in the CCC in 2018 and 2019, had already announced his retirement from the sport, but was handed a provisional suspension in early February, which has now been upgraded.

He followed the majority of the 2022 W52-FC Porto team with some form of doping ban.

The team was Portugal's most successful, winning nine consecutive Portuguese Volta titles from 2013 to 2021, but Antunes and Alarcon were stripped of three of those titles.

Last April, the team's property was raided by police as part of the Prova Limpa and syringes, pills, and blood transfusion equipment were found; in July the UCI and the Portuguese Cycling Federation (FPC) intervened and banned them from competing.

Four months later, seven riders received multi-year bans from the UCI and the Portuguese Anti-Doping Organization (ADOP) for various violations.

Joni Brandão, José Gonçalves, and Jorge Magalhais, who will be part of the 2022 W52, were provisionally suspended in July, along with other riders on the team.

All three, however, are among a group of W52 teams facing criminal charges (open in new tab) related to Prova Limpa and trafficking and administration of banned drugs and methods.

Also among the 26 defendants are seven previously suspended W52 riders, team manager Adriano Quintanilla, general director Ugo Veloso, director sportif Nuno Ribeiro and José Rodríguez, and mechanic Nelson Rocha were also included.

Former players Daniel Freitas (banned for three years for possession of a banned substance as a member of Prova Limpa) and Hugo Sancho (banned for four years for misuse of a biological passport) are also involved.

The titles are in the spotlight after Alarcón and Antunes were stripped of the 2017, 2018, and 2021 titles at Portugal's biggest event.

The UCI gave the 2017 and 2018 first places to Antunes and Brandão, but the FPC never confirmed the results, Federation President Delmino Pereira said.

"We are looking at the best way to protect the reputation of Volta a Portugal," he told Bola Branca (open in new tab). 'Therefore, it is possible that in some competitions, titles may not be awarded due to the sheer number of cases.'

"Even though the UCI corrected the classifications, we did not homologate those results," he said of 2017 and 2018. 'We will evaluate them at the appropriate time, when we have all the information.'

Regardless of the decisions surrounding these three titles, Ricardo Mestre, Viñas, Rodriguez, and Antunes will retain their Volta titles in 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2020, and their suspensions will apply to other periods.

Pereira said the FPC is committed to change for the next generation of cyclists.

"One generation cannot destroy another. 'We have many young people, great talents, and they have a right to their profession and their future. That is why we are doing everything we can to get through this difficult moment."

"It is important to understand that intensified testing may lead to new cases, but that is a risk we have no problem taking.

"We were the first country in the world to introduce the Biological Passport test for UCI Continental teams. Measures of this dimension lead to the detection of positive tests, but now zero tolerance is required. There are problems, but we are solving them."