Puerto inquiry tossed out
A Spanish doping investigation that implicated 58 top cyclists two days prior to the Tour de France last year has been dismissed from court, Spanish judicial sources said Monday.

The case, which came to light in May 2006 when police raids discovered an alleged blood-doping network run by a Madrid-based doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, was thrown out due to a lack of evidence and the fact that there was no Spanish anti-doping law when the inquiry came to light.

Residing magistrate Antonio Serrano ruled that five people at the center of the affair, including Fuentes, were cleared of any involvement.

A statement by Serrano, obtained by AFP, explained Monday: "Contrary to French and Italian legislation (...) at the time of the investigation Spanish law could not pursue anyone criminally for doping or practices linked to doping."

Spain only recently followed France and Italy in introducing a law against doping, and the use and distribution of banned substances. The law was introduced in November 2006.

However, while the case was dismissed in Spain, the UCI may now decide to pursue suspected riders based on the evidence it has obtained from investigators.

The probe, dubbed Operación Puerto, uncovered an alleged doping network said to involve 200 athletes, including 58 cyclists.

Revelations implicating top cyclists led to several yellow-jersey favorites being suspended by their teams two days prior to the 2006 Tour de France.

Ivan Basso of Italy and 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich of Germany were among more than a dozen riders pulled out of the race. In the months that followed Basso and Ullrich were sacked by their teams, CSC and T-Mobile, respectively.

Basso, last year's Giro d’Italia winner, was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the Italian sports authorities due to what they claimed was a lack of evidence.

He has since joined the Discovery Channel team.

Ullrich, who like Basso has always denied any link to the affair, has retired.

UCI: Doping probe far from over
World cycling chief Pat McQuaid said the Operación Puerto doping probe, which was shelved by a Spanish magistrate on Monday, is far from being over.

The Spanish doping investigation, which implicated nearly 60 top cyclists two days prior to the Tour de France last year, was dismissed from court on Monday.

However, UCI chief McQuaid, speaking to AFP while on his way to China, said the prosecutor involved in the case could appeal to have that decision overturned within the next three days. And that could allow the UCI to study key evidence, which has so far been witheld from the organization, to judge whether any of the riders implicated were involved in doping infringements.

"The Spanish prosecutor has three days to appeal this decision by the court, and the indications are that he will appeal," McQuaid told AFP. "We have to wait until that happens before taking any further action."

A successful appeal over the shelving of the case would allow the UCI to use the “civil party” status, recently accorded to them by a Madrid judge after initially being refused, to use evidence to which the sport's ruling body had so far not been privy in a bid to pursue any drugs cheats.

McQuaid said that for the moment all 58 riders originally implicated in the affair were presumed "innocent until proven guilty.” And he admitted the UCI's next move could depend on how much information on the affair the Spanish judges decide to divulge.

"For us the investigation is still ongoing," added McQuaid, who said he did not know whether the riders implicated should fear for their futures.

"It's hard to know. They may be. But from a legal perspective they are all free to race and are innocent until proven guilty."

He added: "We are wondering whether there is more information that is relevant to the investigation, and which we haven't seen yet. But what the UCI does next depends on whether the judge releases that information and whether it will be restricted or not.

"Our intentions are still to do the maximum we can to get access to the files and to use what is in them if we see evidence of doping infractions."

UCI set to rule on Hondo
Cycling's world ruling body will rule in the coming days whether banned German cyclist Danilo Hondo can return to the peloton, UCI layer Philippe Verviest said on Monday.

Hondo's ban is set to end on March 31. However, the 33-year-old is still uncertain of returning to competition.

Hondo was initially suspended for a year on April 1, 2005, after testing positive for carphedon, a banned stimulant, the previous March during the Tour of Murcia.

His suspension was then increased by a year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after a request by the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Hondo, who rides with a Swiss license, took the case to Swiss courts and won a temporary suspension of his ban. That allowed him to compete until January 2007, when the Swiss courts definitively rejected his appeal.

CAS had said on Friday that Hondo's initial two-year suspension should be in keeping with the actual amount of time he spent being suspended.