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By Agence France Presse
April 30, 2007

As defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso awaits a hearing on his alleged involvement in Spain’s Operación Puerto doping affair, news reports on Monday suggest that another 49 cyclists may be implicated in new documents seized in the year-old investigation.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, a new 6000-page dossier from the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes implicates a new crop of clients in a scandal that has already ensnared several top riders, including Basso and 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich.

The Puerto scandal erupted in May of last year when police uncovered an alleged blood doping and doping network when they raided the premises of a Madrid sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

At the time, police seized hundreds of small bags of blood, banned substances, including erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormones and anabolic steroids, and incriminating documents with alleged code names and numbers for Fuentes’ ‘clients’.

Some 200 athletes, including 58 cyclists, were reportedly implicated, leading to the suspension of 13 riders - including Basso and Ullrich - by their teams prior to last year’s Tour de France.

Both Ullrich and Basso and many other riders implicated have protested their innocence. So far, only Ullrich appears as guilty following a recent DNA comparison test with blood found during the raid.

Ullrich has since retired while Basso, who was initially cleared by Italian authorities in the autumn, is to appear at a new hearing scheduled by the Italian Olympic Committee’s (CONI) disciplinary commission on Wednesday.

The Italian sports daily did not reveal the identities of the 49 riders it believes are also part of the affair.

But Gazzetta’s report said: “Until now we thought there was only one dossier of 500 pages, but it appears the Spanish authorities are ready to launch another investigation.

“This new dossier is supposedly 6000 pages long. It is said to mention 49 riders, among whom are some of the biggest names in the sport, adding to the 58 already implicated.”

If would mean 107 cyclists have now been implicated in Operación Puerto, leaving the UCI and major race organizers with a major headache.

The UCI is battling to get to the bottom of the affair which dragged on for most of last season, while the organizers of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are keen to prevent further scandal on their races.

A recent DNA sample from Ullrich reportedly linked the 1997 Tour de France winner to blood found in Fuentes’ laboratory.

It led Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme to declare last week that riders implicated in Puerto will not be allowed to ride until they are exonerated.

“The sport just cannot allow cyclists who are still implicated in this affair to start the Tour de France if suspicion still hangs over them,” Prudhomme said.

Basso will be asked to provide a DNA sample, which could prove his innocence, when he appears at the CONI hearing on May 2.

After being suspended by his team, Discovery Channel, last week, it appears his chances of defending his Giro d’Italia crown in the May 12-June 3 race are hanging by a thread.

“As it stands his (Basso’s) participation in the Giro d’Italia will be difficult,” Giro director Angelo Zomegnan said last week.