Xacobeo Galicia hasn’t been paying riders’ salaries
The riders have kept it quiet long enough. It was reported on Wednesday that Spanish Continental team Xacobeo Galicia hasn’t been paying its riders and staff members since July, something that they had threatened to go public about over three months ago.
Before the Vuelta a Espana, the team's backers had been late in paying for July’s salary and the staff threatened to inform authorities. The team managed to pay the previous month’s salary before the start of the Vuelta, thus avoiding the negative publicity.
However, El Correo Gallego has reported that salaries have not been paid since then, and the team also suffered from negative publicity in the form of several doping scandals.
Xacobeo Galicia rider Ezequiel Mosquera finished runner-up to Vincenzo Nibali in the Vuelta, but was later found positive for the use of Hydroxyethyl starch, a known masking agent for blood-booster EPO. Mosquera’s teammate David Garcia tested positive for
the same substance at the same event.
"It’s basically a masking agent," said doping specialist Dr. Conor McGrane to Cyclingnews. "The substance isn’t banned, but they only way you can take it is through intravenous transfusion, and that is banned."
The Galego Cycling Federation, primary sponsor of the team, was required to make a deposit to the UCI totalling the amount of three months' worth of salaries for all riders and employees. The deposit is insurance in the event of the sudden collapse of a
team, but if that is the case here it will still leave former team members missing two months worth of pay.
The team announced its dissolution in October, in response the announcement that Mosquera and Garcia had tested positive. Until then, they had been desperately searching for a sponsor to sign on for the 2011 season, but finally called it quits when the scandal
surfaced.
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