Communidad Valenciana to take legal action

By Antonio J. Salmerón

The Communidad Valenciana team has announced that it will take legal action against institutions that it claims have damaged its reputation in the wake of the Operacion Puerto doping affair, according to a press release issued by the team yesterday.

The team declared that team managers and riders have not been complicit in doping. In addition, the 32 members of the team would sue for compensation for the personal, sporting and economic damage sustained by its members over the past three weeks.

Those that could be the target of legal action may include the Operacion Puerto investigators and those that have collaborated with the doping investigation, as well as members of the media.

The press release stated that, "These legal actions will be directed against the people in charge of the investigation and those who have [provided information to the media] and against [members of the] mass media that have accused anyone [of doping] in the Communidad Valenciana team without having the documentary evidence necessary to prove culpability."

The team also stated that their riders have cooperated fully with the investigation from the beginning and that all riders sent voluntarily sent additional blood samples to authorities to be compared with those samples seized by the Operacion Puerto investigators.