CAS to open Valverde appeal on Italian doping ban

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde's appeal against a two-year doping ban starts Tuesday as he tries to remove an arbitrator from the case. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will open a three-day hearing despite Valverde's claims that lawyer Ulrich Haas has a conflict of interest because of his consulting work with the World Anti-Doping Agency. WADA is opposing the Spanish Vuelta champion in a separate case being heard in March by CAS, world sport's highest court of appeal. CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said Monday that the first case will begin even as Valverde appeals Haas' involvement to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. "The appeal to the (federal court) does not prevent the CAS panel continuing the proceedings and to sit this week," Reeb said in a statement to The Associated Press. Haas was nominated to the three-man panel by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), which last May banned Valverde from riding in that country. Under CAS rules, each side can nominate one arbitrator and the court names the third. Both Valverde cases at CAS center on his alleged connections to a Madrid clinic raided in the long-running blood-doping robe known as Operation Puerto. CONI said a blood sample taken from Valverde when the 2008 Tour de France traveled into Italy matched DNA from blood bags seized during a May 2006 raid in Spain. Valverde says CONI has no right to sanction him, arguing that to do so defies a Spanish judge's order that evidence obtained in Spain cannot be used against him in Italy. The hearing is scheduled to run through Thursday, though a ruling is not expected for several weeks. Valverde will not give evidence in person as he is in Australia preparing for the Tour Down Under stage race that starts next week. In the case being heard in March, WADA and the International Cycling Union are challenging the Spanish cycling federation as it has refused to discipline the 29-year-old rider based on Puerto evidence. WADA and UCI want to extend the ban worldwide. That hearing is scheduled over four days. – AP