Cyclingnews.com reports Valv. (Piti) is back in the pro peloton after serving his ban for involvement in the Fuentes Affair (Valverde: I Didn’t Do Anything Wrong | Cyclingnews.com). But professing innocence. Interesting given the match between his DNA and the DNA in the Valv. (Piti) blood bags recovered during Operacion Puerto.
A blood sample taken on the rest day of the 2008 Tour de France in Italy would ultimately prove to be Valverde’s undoing, albeit after a lengthy legal process. In 2009, the Italian Olympic Committee banned Valverde from competition in Italy after matching his DNA to blood bags seized in Operacion Puerto. On May 31, 2010, CAS finally upheld appeals from the UCI and WADA to have his ban extended worldwide, four years after Fuentes was first arrested.
Cyclingnews.com has extensive reports on Operacion Puerto. I'd argue that the whole thing is a miscarriage of justice given that so few athletes were ever sanctioned for this great blood doping racket. All those bags of blood, and so few matched by DNA analysis to the culprits. I doubt Valverde is innocent, but I can understand why he might feel rather aggrieved.