ROME, April 14, 2011 – Italian police raided the racing headquarters
of Russian pro cycling outfit Katusha at Lonato in northern Italy on Thursday,
seizing five biological passports, the team have announced.
“The police asked only for the biological passports of five riders, one of
whom is no longer on our books,” Katusha said in a team statement.
“We have fully cooperated, giving police all the documents they asked for.”
Katusha is one of 18 teams in the Pro Teams division of the International
Cycling Union (UCI).
The team boasts some top name riders such as Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez,
Italians Filippo Pozzato, Luca Paolini and Danilo Di Luca, and Russians
Alexander Kolobnev and Vladimir Karpets.
All professional cyclists own biological passports, which are used to
register and chart the athlete’s biological parameters over time to determine
whether he may have used performance-enhancing substances or methods.