What a Piti!

You Blow, UCI!: yep, the illiterate goon squad over at UCI, which couldn't be bothered to read the Op Puerto file before its beloved Tour de France but is apparently not quite so sentimental about keeping dopers in the upcoming World Championships, has now decided that, after a diligent perusal of the 6000-page file, Alejandro "Piti" Valverde "may" be implicated in "several" of the documents, and is therefore utterly unfit to ride the Worlds. What the @#$%, UCI? Let's leave aside for the moment the astounding fact that, out of 6000 pages and approximately 107 riders implicated in the scandal, most of whom presumably remain in the peloton, you've only managed to connect the dots to one guy--quite impressive! And let's even leave aside your utter bull!@#$ statement that, while you're asking the Spanish cycling fed to investigate, this "would not imply any guilt on the part of Alejandro Valverde"--if so, why are you barring him from the Worlds then? But Valverde was linked to Op Puerto a *year* ago on the exact same allegations you're raising now--do you self-aggrandizing weasels have *any* excuse for not reading the file during the two long months you had it ahead of the Tour, besides not wanting to blow the ratings in the highly likely event it turned out only a handful of no-name also-rans were gonna be clean enough to be allowed to ride it?

On the plus side, so far as I can tell, this leaves Valverde free to change his plan and join Caisse d'Epargne's fine line-up as team leader at the Vuelta start line, as I assume the race organizers wouldn't object to the participation of one of their own, particularly since he was one dope-fiend Vino away from victory last year, and the team's been in strong defense of their boy since the same claims came up in '06. If he does show up, poor Oscar Pereiro, again!