Abnormalities in biological passport: UCI suspends Portuguese professional cyclist

After the Spaniard Oier Lazkano and the Brazilian Vinicius Rangel, the UCI has now also provisionally suspended the Portuguese rider António Carvalho. The world governing body confirmed in a brief statement that the 36-year-old Portuguese rider was found to have "unexplained anomalies in his biological athlete passport in 2018, 2023 and 2024". The suspension is in accordance with the UCI's anti-doping rules and applies until the disciplinary proceedings have been concluded. The world governing body also stated that it would not make any further comments during the ongoing proceedings. Carvalho joins a growing list of riders facing provisional suspensions in connection with passport offences. In addition to Carvalho, both Oier Lazkano and Vinicius Rangel have been suspended in the space of just a few weeks, although the latter was prosecuted for missing tests and not for anomalies in his biological passport.

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Biological passport as a key tool in the fight against doping

The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is an electronic monitoring profile that collects data over an extended period of time to flag potential doping indicators. The UCI describes it as "an individual electronic record for each rider, compiling the results of all doping tests collected under the ABP programme over a specified period of time." The programme is run by the International Testing Agency, with analysis supported by the Lausanne APMU and an independent panel of experts. The Athlete Passport, which was introduced in the early 2000s, measures athletes' blood values over a longer period of time in order to indirectly recognise signs of blood doping. In the years since its introduction, anti-doping authorities have added further modules to detect the use of anabolic steroids, measure testosterone ratios and an endocrine module that can detect signs of human growth hormone use. As in the Lazkano case last week, the UCI did not specify which module contained the anomalous values.

Carvalho's career and Portuguese cycling under suspicion of doping

The 36-year-old Carvalho rode for several teams before the abnormalities were detected by the UCI. In the years in question, he competed for W52/FC Porto and ABTF Betão-Feirense, the latter being the team he was still riding for in 2025. In the last decade, seven riders from W52/FC Porto were suspended and the team was eventually disbanded after its licence was revoked. Carvalho left the team in 2020, but has now also ended up on the list of doping cases in Portuguese cycling. This included a 20-day ban for Continental team APHotels & Resorts-Tavira-SC Farense in October due to "unexplained anomalies" in the ABPs of two riders. Carvalho, who has spent the majority of his racing career in Portugal, won three stages of his home Tour Volta a Portugal in 2019, 2020 and 2022 and twice finished third overall, in 2022 and 2023.