Just a few days before the end of the Giro d’ Italia the “Operacion Puerto" doping scandal is entering a more revealing phase. The blood doping scandal started a year ago before the 2006 Tour of France with the arrest of Manolo Saiz and four other people accused of doping practices which involved more than 200 athletes, including up to 107 cyclists.



Entire teams as Comunidad Valenciana (continental) and Liberty Seguros (professional) were dissolved after the scandal but the cycling starts became suspects. The operacion Puerto re-opened the disgrace suffered in 1998 with the “Tour of Shame".

Some of the professional cyclist related with the case like Mancebo, Ivan Basso and Vinokourov who were favorites to win the “Ronda Francesa" suffered the consequences for their implication when they were enable to take part in last year Tour of France. Basso also was booted from the Discovery Channel team and admitted his connection with Puerto.

However, the case is still open and the rumors compromise the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde from Caisse d'Epargne, one of the most famous cyclists of the last two years. According to the Italian newspaper Il Giornali Valverde was number 18 in Dr Fuentes' blood bank.

Most of the cyclists implied in Operación Puerto have been prohibited to participate in the Big Races (Giro d’ Italia, Tour of France and Vuelta a España) but the experts in the subject assure that part of the “pelotón" that is riding the Giro d’ Italia is also using performance enhancers. The recent confession of Bjarne Riis, 1996 Tour winner and now owner and manager of the CSC team opens the suspicions to his team that is currently riding in the Giro. Also, three former Telekom riders, Bert Dietz, Christian Henn and Udo Boelts admitted this week they had taken EPO.

The sport authorities are determined to follow the case until the end and as part of it, the WADA was approved to access the files associated with Puerto, which means disciplinary actions will be taken against cycling scammers.