Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Call it luck or maybe he simply wasn’t involved, but pez and bicirace have recently reported that Basso may be cleared of his involvment in the Operation Puerto case. As reported on velochimp.com before: Is Basso Guilty, the evidence against Birillo is very thin and the Italian Cyling Federation may not have enough evidence to prosecute Basso. Basso’s case will then likely move to the Court of Arbitration of Sport run by the UCI which will also look at the evidence and see if they can find an angle to prosecute.

In new developments it looks like there maybe some more evidence coming up to prosecute Basso. ivanbasso.netreports that on September 20th Basso’s home was searched along with several other cyclist. The searches originally did not start with Basso but lead to him.

“We have phone tappings from [Basso’s phone] which are very compromising for the cyclist and his relatives”, explained a police officer, who added that these new facts would be transmitted to the Guardia Civil working on Operation Puerto and CONI. This thus calls into question initial reports that CONI would archive the case.

Whether Basso is prosecuted with the old evidence or the newest evidence it is pretty clear that Basso will not be clear of legal proceeding very soon. If CONI does archive the case he will have to face CAS and any new evidence that was recently gathered. Perhaps it is time to look for another career for Basso?

http://ivanbasso.net/