Oier Lazkano has lost his contract with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe after the UCI provisionally suspended him over alleged abnormalities in his biological passport values in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The German World Tour team has confirmed the former Spanish national champion, who had a contract to the end of 2027, is now long part of its plans.
"We confirm that Oier Lazkano will no longer be part of our team. This follows the decision of the UCI to provisionally suspend him. The matter concerns the seasons 2022-2024 – a time before he joined our team," the team said short after a UCI announcement today.
The UCI, cycling's world governing body, said Lazkano has been "provisionally suspended in accordance with the UCI anti-doping rules, due to unexplained abnormalities in his athlete biological passport in 2022, 2023 and 2024."
The biological passport is a system that tracks a rider's blood values over time in the hope if an athlete has been taking banned substances at any point, that will show up in their comparative blood values over time.
Advertisement
However, the UCI anti doping process against Lazkano is still underway and, as a result, the UCI said it "will not comment further while the proceedings are ongoing".
Related News
News of the case has emerged just weeks after Italian rider Giovanni Carboni (Unibet Tietema Rockets) was provisionally suspended over alleged biological passport abnormalities.
Lazkano emerged in recent years as an all-rounder; a rider who could TT and climb and also perform in the one-day races in the spring. He last raced at Paris-Roubaix this year when he spent the day in the early breakaway but did not feature in the final.
The years of his career now under examination all relate to his time as a Movistar rider. While with that team he won a stage at Tour de Wallonie (2.Pro), won a stage and the overall at Boucles de la Mayenne (2.Pro), was 2nd at Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.UWT), won the Spanish road race title, claimed a stage at Vuelta a Burgos (2.Pro) and won Clásica Jaén (1.1).
Last year he placed 9th at Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT), climbing with many of the best riders in the world, and went on to prove one of the most aggressive riders at the Tour de France and La Vuelta, though did not convert that into a stage win.
While Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe has been quick to distance itself from Lazkano, and has pointed out the allegation he faces pre-dates his time at the team, his case is a source of embarrassment for the team.
The Spanish rider raced for just 15 days for the team and as he remained absent from the rider roster as races since April, questions had been asked about why he was missing for such a long time. However, it remained unclear precisely when the team learned of the anti doping process now underway against him.
