Bags containing the blood of a large number of doped pro cyclists are finally being handed over to the UCI and WADA.
Many top pro bike riders, past and present, who have taken performance enhancing drugs look set to be indentified following an important ruling in a Spanish court earlier today, Tuesday.
However, because it is now just over 10 years since Operation Puerto began, WADA’s statute of limitations for sanctioning the riders has now passed.
It means the release of blood bags collected under Operation Puerto to the relevant sporting authorities – including the UCI and WADA – could lead to the doped riders being identified but not being sanctioned.
WADA’s statute of limitations is now 10 years, an anniversary in the Operation Puerto probe that passed just last month.
Since the estimated 220 blood bags were seized from Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2006 there has been a protracted legal process but very few of the cyclists involved have ever been identified.
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The blood in the bags that must now be surrendered to the sporting authorities can have DNA profiles extracted and these can be cross checked against the DNA of any pro rider that has ever done a drugs test.
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In that way, WADA and the UCI will be able to identify whose blood is in the bags.
There is believed to be blood from 35 athletes in the bags, the majority of them cyclists.
However, only a small number of riders who worked with the notorious Dr Fuentes were ever sanctioned. These include Alejandro Valverde, Jörg Jacksche, Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso.
A court in Spain had ruled in April 2013 that the blood bags should be destroyed. However, that order has now been overruled.
It means the blood bags seized as part of Operation Puerto into Dr Fuentes’s activities will now be handed over to the relevant sporting authorities from the Barcelona laboratory where they have been stored.
The bags will now be surrendered to the UCI and WADA along with other national sporting federations including the Italian and Spanish cycling federations, among others.
Judge Alejandro Maria Benito also ruled at the Provincial Court of Madrid on Tuesday that because blood was not a medical product, the key people allegedly at the centre of the blood doping have had their convictions for public health crimes set aside.
It means Dr Fuentes and his sister Yolanda Fuentes can practice again and also that Manolo Saiz and Vicente Belda have been acquitted.
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