ROME, Feb 18, 2009 (AFP) – Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde’s appearance
before the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) to face doping charges has been
kept for Thursday after describing a Spanish court’s objections to the
proceedings as “groundless.”
Valverde’s summons in Rome to question the rider has been kept for 1600GMT
on Thursday, Coni said in a Wednesday statement, because of separate,
“independent evidence.”
A Spanish court earlier on Wednesday moved to block the case by Coni
following a blood and urine sample given by the Caisse d’Epargne rider last
year during an Italian leg of the Tour de France.
The Spanish court claimed the samples of blood held by the Spanish justice
system in relation to ‘Operation Puerto’ doping scandal, which erupted in
Spain in 2006, could not be used on another case in another country.
Although the Tour de France sample did not fail any tests, the DNA matched
those of other samples seized by Spanish police from the laboratory of Dr
Eufemiano Fuentes, the central figure in the Puerto scandal.
However Coni’s anti-doping section said they “considered the objections
groundless because the deeds from the ‘Operation Puerto’ inquiry had been
acquired in complete compliance with the current regulations concerning
international bodies.”
Coni prosecutors added they were “also in possession of independent
evidence which compelled them to proceed with the disciplinary proceedings
against Alejandro Valverde for violating anti-doping rules.”
Valverde later told Spanish radio station RNE that he would definitely be
going to Rome after deciding to “give his side of the story as a sign of
goodwill and to defend his reputation.”
Valverde has long come under suspicion of doping after being implicated in
the Puerto affair although nothing came of Spanish investigations into his
alleged involvement.
Valverde is a one-day specialist who is a twice Pro Tour champion and has
three times finished on the podium at the World Championships and was second
in the 2006 Tour of Spain.