Swiss court rejects Valverde doping appeal

SPANISH cyclist Alejandro Valverde has had his appeal against a worldwide two-year doping ban dismissed by Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court.

The 30-year-old has been trying to overturn the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last May to ban him until January 2012.

The CAS ruling came after a successful appeal by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to have the 2009 Tour of Spain winner’s ban in Italy extended worldwide.

Valverde was first handed a ban by the Italian Olympic Committee in May 2009. The body’s anti-doping tribunal decided the Spaniard was involved in Operacion Puerto, in which more than 50 cyclists were linked to a suspected doping ring centred on a clinic in Madrid.

DNA taken from Valverde during the Italian stage of the 2008 Tour de France matched blood seized in Operacion Puerto. The CAS hearing decided the evidence was sufficient to prove that blood seized in Operacion Puerto came from Valverde, and that it contained the banned EPO.