Italian prosecutor demands two-year ban for Valverde

Italian National Olympic Committee (Coni) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Wednesday called for Alejandro Valverde, embroiled in a Spanish blood doping probe, to be suspended for two years.

Last month, Spaniard Valverde, nicknamed The Green Bullet, told an Italian anti-doping hearing he had not done anything wrong and was not in any way mixed up in Spain's Operation Puerto scandal.

According to Torri, blood samples from Valverde emanating from a doping control during last year's Tour de France during a stage in Italy matched DNA samples from suspect blood bags discovered in the Spanish investigation, which dates from 2006.

AFP