The Bahrain-Victorious hotel was searched, as was the team bus. “Nothing special” for team boss Milan Erzen
Got a visit from the police: Wout Poels, the leader in the mountain classification
The Bahrain-Victorious team around the Dutchman Wout Poels, the leader in the mountain classification of the 108th Tour de France, received a surprising visit on Wednesday evening: the French police arrived, searched the team bus and hotel in Pau and said goodbye after about an hour, as reported by Cyclingnews. For team manager Milan Erzen “nothing special, they asked for the drivers' training documents and checked the bus, that's it. We will hopefully find out what they wanted through our lawyers in the course of the day.”
About a month ago, two unnamed people were critical of the racing team to the French newspaper Le Parisien after the Italian Damiano Caruso surprisingly took second place in the overall standings at the Giro d'Italia. The two solo mountain stage victories of the Ukrainian Mark Padun at the Critérium du Dauphiné raised further doubts. However, the two people were unable to provide evidence of their concerns about the team's credibility.
The Seefeld Konnex
Because Milan Erzen is said to have had connections to suspects as part of Operation Aderlass at the Nordic World Ski Championships 2019 in Seefeld, the manager has been under observation by the UCI, the world cycling association, for some time. The Slovenian himself asserts that he is not doing anything illegal: “We work 110 percent according to the rules. We have the same doping tests as everyone else, maybe even more. And if someone wants to test us, we are always ready to do so.”
In the current Tour de France, the Spaniard Pello Bilbao is tenth overall before the Thursday stage over the Col du Tourmalet to Luz Ardiden, the Slovenian Matej Mohoric won the seventh stage and the Belgian Dylan Teuns the eighth. The Australian Jack Haig, who was actually intended for the overall classification, had to give up the tour on the third stage due to injuries after a fall. The team also includes two Austrians: Marco Haller from Carinthia, currently 130th, and Hermann Pernsteiner from Lower Austria, who has not been nominated.
