Movistar have stated "with absolute firmness" their "unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport" in a week in which two of its former riders were suspended over anti-doping issues.
The Spanish WorldTour team released a statement on Friday morning responding to the news, announced on Thursday, that their former rider Oier Lazkano had been suspended by the UCI over "unexplained abnormalities" in his biological passport.
The abnormalities occurred partly during the Basque rider's time at Movistar, 2022-2024, according to the UCI; it was also when his most notable results occurred, including victory at the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior in 2024.
Lazkano joined Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at the beginning of 2025, but had not raced for the team since Paris-Roubaix in April. After the UCI statement on Thursday, his team swiftly revealed that the 25-year-old had left the team.
Also this week, Brazilian rider Vinícius Rangel Costa was given a 20-month suspension for three failures to report his whereabouts for anti-doping controls. Rangel Costa raced for Movistar between 2022-2024, last riding for the team in May 2024 at Eschborn-Frankfurt.
According to the UCI, the Brazilian had three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period, but the announcement did not specify when that period was.
In response to UCI's statement on Lazkano, Abarca Sports, the company who owns the Movistar WorldTour team, issued a press release detailing the communications the team had received from the UCI over the issue.
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A spokesperson for Abarca Sports said: "It is not until yesterday afternoon, October 30, 2025, that he has become aware of this situation.
"During the three seasons of contractual relationship with Mr Lazkano (of the five to which the UCI study refers) all the controls to which he was subjected by the different national and international organizations, as well as internal to the team itself, yielded a negative result. By virtue of this, it was materially impossible to know, or even intuit, any anomaly such as the one now presented in the procedure opened by the International Cycling Union.
"Abarca Sports reiterates once again with absolute firmness its unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport. To this end, we will redouble with absolute determination all the efforts, controls and measures that we have been promoting to date."
Movistar announced a restructuring of its management team this week, with Sebastián Unzué becoming head of sports, and a racing department headed by Chente García Acosta and Matt White.
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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