The Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) Friday banned Ivan Basso
for two years for his affair in the Operation Puerto blood-doping
scandal.
The 29-year-old Italian, one of the favorites for this year's
Tour de France, was handed his punishment at a disciplinary hearing
in the Italian capital.
The suspensions Basso had already served when he was identified
as a doping suspect, amounting to 236 days in total, were deducted
from the two years, meaning his ban will actually end on October
24, 2008.
"I can't do anything other than accept the sentence," Basso was
quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA after the hearing.
"Now I will continue to train and I will be thinking ahead to
the races in 2009."
Basso, who was among dozens of riders implicated in the
Operation Puerto affair, denied ever having taken banned drugs or
using tampered blood, but admitted to having attempted to do
so.
The scandal erupted before last year's Tour De France when
Spanish police uncovered an alleged blood doping network run by
doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
The Tour was deprived of its top names such as Basso and
Germany's Jan Ullrich.
This year organizers of the Tour de France, which starts next
month, have been urging cycling authorities to act against
implicated riders to try to avoid a repeat of last year's
fiasco.
(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2007)