Valverde loses appeal against Italian ban

Published Tue, Mar 16 10 08:27 PM

Tour of Spain champion Alejandro Valverde has lost an appeal against a two-year ban on him racing in Italy, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Tuesday.

"The suspension remains in force until 10 May 2011," CAS said in a statement.

Valverde has been barred from racing in Italy since May for alleged links to the Operation Puerto anti-doping investigation.

Italy's Olympic Committee (CONI) imposed the ban, saying blood samples Valverde gave at a doping control in 2008 -- when the Tour de France entered Italy -- matched DNA from code-named bags of blood discovered in Operation Puerto, launched in 2006.

The Spaniard repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and appealed to CAS against the ruling. The Swiss-based tribunal later allowed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI) to take part in proceedings.

The ban prevented him from taking part in last year's Tours of Italy and France. However, he won the Tour of Spain -- his first major tour win -- as well as the Tour of Catalonia, the Dauphine Libere and the Tour of Burgos.

In January, the CAS rejected a request from the UCI and WADA to extend the ban worldwide, saying it fell outside the jurisdiction of the case.

The UCI said it still wanted an international ban imposed.

"UCI will study the case and commits itself to take every measure to extend the ban internationally," a source close to UCI said.

Source: Web Search