UCI suspends Portuguese rider in eighth biological passport case of 2025

The UCI has banned Portuguese rider António Carvalho Ferreira for four years over abnormalities in his biological passport values, the federation announced on Wednesday. The 36-year-old was provisionally suspended in November for anomalies in his passport during 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Carvalho's ban began on November 4, 2025 and runs through November 3, 2029.

The case is the eighth bio passport case of the year, with recent suspensions being levied on Spaniards Oier Lazkano (from his days with Movistar) and Delio Fernández Cruz, and Italian Giovanni Carboni (from his time with JCL Team UKYO).

Fernandez's case and that of ex-rider Venceslau Fernandes led to a 20-day ban for their AP Hotels and Resorts-Tavira-SC Farense team.

Other passport cases from this year came from Portugal, involving Luís Mendoça and Luís Fernandes (Radio Popular-Boavista), and follow 2024 cases involving Portuguese riders Luís Gomes, Nuno Meireles, and Federico Figueiredo.

There have been more passport cases coming out of Portugal, where the fallout from a doping ring uncovered by the 'Operação Prova Limpa' investigation continues. The inquiry started in 2022 when police raided the W52-FC Porto team's hotel during a race in Portugal.

Carvalho raced with the W52 team from 2015 to 2019 before moving onto other Portuguese continental teams. His palmares include three stages of the Volta a Portugal (2019, 2020, 2022) and two overall podiums in the race (2022 and 2023).

Last week, in the criminal case stemming from Provo Limpa, the former boss of the W52-FC Porto team, Adriano Quintanilha, and sports director Nuno Ribeiro, were sentenced to four years and nine months for doping riders on the team between 2020 and 2022.

Former riders João Rodrigues, Rui Vinhas, Ricardo Mestre, Samuel Caldeira, Daniel Mestre, José Neves, Ricardo Vilela, Joni Brandão, José Gonçalves, Jorge Magalhães and André Freitas were tried for trafficking of substances and prohibited methods, and received suspended sentences for two and a half years or less.