Alejandro Valverde has once again had his appeal against a two-year suspension turned down, according to Belga. The Spanish rider, who was retrospectively banned on May 31st last year, took his case to the Swiss Court of Appeal to attempt to get his ban overturned but the court upheld the decision of the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS).
Valverde is the only Spanish rider to have received any sanction over the Operación Puerto scandal. Three years after the blood-doping ring run by Spanish gynaecologist Eufemiano Fuentes was uncovered, Italian anti-doping authorities (CONI) matched DNA taken from the Spanish rider when the Tour de France passed into Italy with that of blood bags marked VALV.(PITI). He was suspended from racing in Italy from May 2009, which was extended to a worldwide ban after the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed the case to the CAS.
Although he had been racing up to that point, the ban was backdated to January 1st and Valverde was retrospectively disqualified and removed from all results.
Other than flatly denying that his dog was named “Piti” (the name printed on the blood bags and paperwork) Valverde has not appealed against his suspension on the grounds of innocence; he has merely questioned the legality of the way in which his DNA was linked to the blood bags in Fuentes’ fridge.
Other than Valverde, the only other riders (and the only other athletes from the alleged 200-strong list from across a number of sports) to have been sanctioned over the affair were Italians Ivan Basso and Michele Scarponi, and Austrian Jörg Jaksche. This may explain why CONI was so keen to pursue Valverde’s case; it had sanctioned its own sporting heroes but was frustrated by the Spanish authorities apparent reluctance to sanction theirs.
The fact that Valverde is the only Spanish rider to be sanctioned – and that Basso Scarponi and Jaksche all received reduced suspension, whereas he has been given the full two years – is perhaps what is fuelling his own sense of injustice.
Whatever his reasoning, Valverde has reportedly announced that he intends to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.