Cycling: Basso Quits Due to Doping Inquiry

Ivan Basso, once tipped as the favourite when the Tour de France starts in London this July, faces a probable end to his career after he and his Discovery Channel team parted company yesterday for reasons linked to the rider's hearing tomorrow before an Italian anti-doping body looking into the Operation Puerto blood-doping inquiry.

Basso dominated last year's Giro d'Italia, riding for the Danish team CSC, but was thrown off the Tour de France when he was implicated in Operation Puerto, a Spanish police investigation into an alleged blood- doping ring. The hearing tomorrow deals with new revelations from the Spanish police and, when it was confirmed last week, Discovery announced that Basso would be suspended from racing until his innocence was confirmed.

Yesterday, however, the team said the 29-year-old would leave forthwith for "personal reasons related to the re-opened investigation by the Italian Olympic Committee [Coni]". Discovery's sponsor, the television channel, is not renewing its support after its present deal runs out at the end of this season and this was clearly a factor.

"The team is trying to find a new sponsor and to win bike races and my situation is a distraction to both of those goals," said Basso. "It is important that everyone knows this was 100% my decision. Nobody asked me to leave."

Clearly he felt that his position was untenable; he is unlikely to find another team and has little chance of starting the Tour. There is also the possibility that he may face DNA testing to assess whether the blood seized by the Guardia Civil is his.

His departure is a severe embarrassment for the Discovery Channel team, jointly run by the seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong, because the team's management roused the anger of their fellow squads when they hired the Italian last autumn. The teams had agreed not to hire riders implicated in Puerto unless their innocence was proved. Basso was cleared by Coni with the proviso that his case might be reopened if further evidence emerged but some teams did not feel this was enough.

"When we signed Ivan, all the necessary governing authorities had cleared him," said the team's general manager, Bill Stapleton. "He deserved a team and we had always wanted to sign him. We did our due diligence and we have no regrets." Basso has, however, barely raced with the team, starting only one major race, the Tirreno-Adriatico, which he quit after a crash.

There are unconfirmed rumours that Operation Puerto is about to widen again, even though it is still unclear whether the case will ever come to court in Spain. Yesterday an Italian newspaper reported that a further 49 cyclists may be involved, bringing the total to a possible 107.

The Russian team Tinkoff yesterday said its Giro d'Italia team would not include two of its riders linked to the investigation, the German Jörg Jaksche and the American Tyler Hamilton, the latter fresh from a two-year suspension for blood doping.