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ProTour teams demand Puerto DNA tests

By VeloNews.com
Published: Apr. 7, 2007

The organization representing UCI ProTour teams has asked cycling authorities to carry out DNA tests on all riders implicated in the Spanish Operación Puerto scandal. The demand comes in the wake of DNA evidence that linked former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich with blood bags found on the properties of tainted doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, as part of the Puerto investigation.

In a joint statement, the ProTour teams and the International Association of Professional Cycling Groups (AIGCP) have asked all cycling authorities to use the DNA of cyclists implicated in the affair to discover whether or not their blood was found in the laboratory.

Most prominent of the group of riders implicated in the Puerto case is 2006 Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso. Like Ullrich, Basso was excluded from the 2006 Tour de France, but he has since been cleared on the grounds that Italian investigators lacked the evidence to pursue the matter. Basso has not submitted to a DNA test.

Upon signing with the Discovery Channel team, Basso issued a carefully worded statement saying he would submit a sample, but only if it were in connection with a judicial or national governing body’s investigation. Neither of those possibilities appears likely, but Basso may be under new pressure to do so.

"We're not going to let this go," AIGCP spokesman Roger Legeay told AFP. "After the Ullrich case it has been shown that we can identify the blood found in the Puerto affair.

"There is no other solution. Every rider implicated in the affair must submit (to a DNA test) otherwise suspicion will descend on them from their first result."