Team RadioShack rider’s house searched, items confiscated by police
Full details are yet to emerge, but today’s raid on the home of Team RadioShack rider Yaroslav Popovych may ultimately turn out to be linked to the ongoing investigation into alleged doping practices described by Floyd Landis earlier this year.
The Italian home of the Ukrainian rider was searched this morning by the police from the Guardia di Finanza di Padova and Carabinieri from Brescia and Florence, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. They used a search warrant to gain access and took away several unidentified substances after spending time carefully going through the house in Brescia.
The warrant was issued by Padua-based prosecutor Benedetto Roberti, who is overseeing an extensive investigation into doping within Italian sport.
Without saying it is definitely the case, La Gazzetta dello Sport has floated the possibility that there is a link between today’s events and the fact that Popovych testified before a Grand Jury last month.
He had been served with a subpoena on October 22nd while taking part in the Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Challenge in Austin, Texas.
According to Popovych’s lawyer, he had nothing to add to the investigation being carried out by Jeff Novitzky, saying that he didn’t witness any doping while competing with the Discovery Channel, Astana and RadioShack teams.
Novitzky is the federal inspector who is investigating Landis’ allegations of widespread doping on the US Postal Service squad run by Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong. While Popovych didn’t compete as part of that team, he joined the Discovery Channel successor in 2005, Armstrong’s final season before retiring.
The Texan returned to professional racing in 2009 and Popovych has competed alongside him since then.
The 30 year old has insisted that the substances seized today were not banned products.