It appeared that Alejandro Valverde’s fight against the UCI had reached a conclusion today when the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned the Spaniard for two years. However the Caisse d’Epargne rider has blasted the decision and promised that he and his legal team will continue to fight on.
“This court imposed a two-year ban sanction, effective staring on January 1, 2010. We consider that sanction totally unjust and illegal,” he said in a statement released late on Monday. “For that reason we communicate that we will appeal that sanction in front of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, which decisions can be appealed in front of the European Court of Human Rights.”
That would appear to open up things to not one, but two possible future legal hearings. It remains to be seen if he can race in the meantime, but if this were possible, it would clearly be a nightmare scenario for the UCI.
Apart from the guilty verdict, he also contests the decision to disqualify him from the events he has raced in this year.
“Concerning the UCI press release saying that Alejandro Valverde will be disqualified from all the competitions in which he has been competing since January 1, 2010, this is obviously a mistake,” it said in the statement. “The court sentence (paragraph 19.14) decided to maintain all the results Alejandro Valverde won until today since the fact he took part in all those races without cheating and in a totally clean way has been confirmed.”
In fact, the statement referred back to previous seasons, and maintained that his wins have been clean. He has been under close scrutiny since Operación Puerto and the statement speaks about CAS’ assertion that there is no evidence that he has been doping since May 2006.
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport recognized that all races Alejandro won were won without cheating and that in no way those victories were the result of the use of prohibited methods,” it said. [That] “is confirmed by the fact that Alejandro Valverde is probably the most controlled sportsman in the world and that he never tested positive in a doping control.”
It is worth noting that there is no test for blood transfusions using a rider’s own blood, the offence for which he has been accused and now found guilty.