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One of Colombia's most important teams abruptly ended its plan Friday after a series of scandals within its own ranks.
The management company of Manzana Postobón, currently a continental professional team that has nurtured some of Colombia's top professionals since its inception in 2007, has cited two cases of doping involving its riders to explain its sudden departure mid-season.
The team announced that it would stop racing immediately and not start the next scheduled races in Colombia or internationally.
"As a result of recent events, in which the riders were involved on a personal level, we made the decision not to continue with the professional team," said team president, Alejandro Restrepo, in a press release. "For now, the team will not participate in scheduled national and international events."
Restrepo said his team was engaged in a clean race since its inception and had insisted that the doping cases involving its riders were the result of activities beyond the control of the team.
The hurried departure of the team leaves a big hole in Colombian cycling. The team has 16 riders and recently participated in events such as the Tour des Alpes in Italy and the Vuelta a Aragon in Spain.
This spring, the team confirmed that one of his riders, Wilmar Paredes, had tested positive for EPO. Last week, Juan José Amador was also tested positive for a banned steroid. The team facing possible sanctions from the UCI, the management made the decision to stop running.
"With these last two cases, I repeat that it was something personal, nothing to do with the team," said sports director Luis Fernando Saldarriaga at Colombian daily El Tiempo. "The team is a powerful enemy of doping. My conscience is clear, but it's a reminder to everyone that this [cycling] is infected by doping. "
The scandal is the latest in a series of doping cases involving Colombian runners. Last year, there were five cases, including WorldTour driver Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), who got a positive result in the EPO test this spring. Alex Cano (Coldeportes-Zenu) has also been suspended for suspicious levels in his biological passport. Fabian Puerta, a track sprinter who won the Keirin World Title in 2018, also searched for traces of a steroid banned last summer.
The team dates back to 2007 and management has said it has tried to establish a clean race culture right from the start. The team was one of the first to adopt the biological passport and then ran as a professional continental team. He returned to the continental and amateur ranks, and then returned to the Pro-Conti level since 2016 with the new sponsor, Manzana Postobón.
In its early days, it was a small team at the continental level, but soon welcomed drivers such as Nairo Quintana, Esteban Chaves, Sergio Henao and Fabio Duarte, a former U23 World Champion. .
He briefly raced at the continental professional level in 2011, but one of his main supporters – Coldeportes – left to create a new continental professional team. Manzana Postobón, a non-alcoholic beverage company, has become a new sponsor to allow the team to return to the professional ranks in 2016.