Team Colombia has been forced to withdraw from the Tour of Turkey after eight of their riders still do not have passports to compete after they were handed to the British Embassy in Rome. They had to hand over the passports to get visas to race the Giro ‘Italia but they did not have their passports returned and they have no way to fly to Turkey without the documents.

“We accompanied eight riders to Rome on April 10th and 14th and paid a significant extra charge for the urgent procedure that should have guaranteed our passports would be returned within five days,” manager Claudio Corti said on Thursday. “Instead, the UK Embassy still holds the documents, without giving us any reasons."

“Right now, we do not know where our riders’ passports are – whether in the Embassy’s offices in the UK or travelling somewhere – nor we can predict when they might be returned. It is an absurd situation that might even jeopardize our Giro d’Italia participation.”

The initial problem arose when Jarlinson Pantano, Carlos Quintero and Miguel Rubiano applied for visas to race abroad at the British Embassy in Bogota, Colombia but they were denied the visas for an apparent technicality.

“We asked for transit [visas] and we should have asked for tourist [ones],” Pantano told las2orillas.co last weekend. Pantano and Quintero since travelled to Europe to compete at the Giro del Trentino, and Colombia press officer David Evangelista explained that they since lodged another application with the British Embassy in Italy, like their other teammates.

“All the riders filed for visas in Italy, where the team sustained costs to activate an urgency procedure and make sure everything run smoothly. Only four riders, who went training in altitude in Colombia in April, had to file for visas at the UK Embassy in Colombia,” Evangelista told Cyclingnews earlier this week.

There are also rumours that Trek’s Julian Arredondo had his visa application denied and he will have to reapply from Europe where he is currently riding the Ardennes Classics.

The other Colombian stars of the Giro should be okay to race as Rigoberto Uran (OPQS), Winner Anacona (Lampre) and Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) all had their visas accepted and Nairo Quintana already has a UK visa as he competed in the 2013 Tour of Britain.