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Scarponi agrees to DNA testing; Basso hearing delayed
Italian cyclist Michele Scarponi has agreed to give a DNA sample to the Italian Olympic Commitee (CONI), which is investigating whether he may be connected to last year’s Operación Puerto doping scandal.
A CONI statement said Scarponi had been called to the hearing "following the reopening of the investigation into Operación Puerto.”
“He is suspected of having violated article 2.2 of the World Anti-Doping Code on the use and attempted use of illegal substances or methods,” the statement continued.
After spending 90 minutes at CONI headquarters in Rome, the former Astana rider, now with the Acqua and Sapone team, said: "Nothing new happened, I notified them of my availability for a DNA test. I said what I knew. I'm optimistic and very calm.
"They didn't hit me with anything new, but I was called here because last year I was registered in Spain (with the Liberty Seguros team, which became Astana), while in 2007 I'm back in Italy. I therefore had to be heard for the first time by the anti-doping public prosecutor."
Scarponi was accompanied by two lawyers and Palmiro Masciarelli, manager of the Acqua and Sapone team.
The 27-year-old Scarponi won the International Coppi and Bartali Week stage race at the end of March.
CONI later questioned Giro df’Italia winner Ivan Basso for nearly two hours before rescheduling his hearing for an unspecified date, his lawyer Massimo Martelli said.
"The hearing has been put back to a yet-to-be-fixed date," Martelli said, adding that his client was "calm."
"He replied to the questions,” Martelli said,
The affair, which initially implicated 58 cyclists from a reported total of 200 athletes, erupted in May 2006 after a raid on the premises of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
Madrid police uncovered bags of blood and doping products, along with codenames of cyclists and documents indicating an organized doping scheme.
