The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has backed UCI demands for a doping investigation into Spanish cycling ace Alejandro Valverde.

The UCI believes it has enough evidence on Valverde to show that he was involved in the Operación Puerto doping affair in Spain, and has recently said he would be banned for next week's world road race championships.

Valverde, who finished third in last year's championships, has always protested his innocence - and has recently won the support of the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC).

The RFEC believes its rider has no case to answer and said it would be sending him to next week's competition in Stuttgart, Germany. However WADA's legal director, Olivier Niggli said Saturday that a 6000 page dossier on Operacion Puerto contained enough elements to open an investigation on the potential involvement of Valverde.

Puerto erupted in May of 2006 after police raided the premises of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, recovering bags of stored blood and banned doping substances.

On August 29, the UCI officially asked the Spanish federation to open disciplinary proceedings against Valverde.

Valverde has since appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), from whom he is expected to hear news on his world championships participation this coming Wednesday.

At the world championships last year Paolo Bettini claimed the coveted rainbow jersey ahead of German Erik Zabel, with Valverde finishing third.

ASO rejects McQuaid
Tour de France organizers have flatly rejected proposals that the International Cycling Union (UCI) has made in recent days in a bid to finally end a long-running dispute over the ProTour racing series.

Tour de France organizer Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), along with the promoters of the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, have long demanded that their events be held outside of the auspices of the UCI-run ProTour, which they have opposed since its inception three years ago.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said this week he would be ready to give in to organizers’ demands, and promised that major changes could be made to the ProTour series as early as next year.

However ASO president Patrice Clerc said Saturday that he believes the UCI has failed to deal with the issues they are most concerned about.

"Contrary to the recent statements by its president, the UCI in its latest proposals has in no way responded to the legitimate concerns of the ASO for the future of the Tour de France and the other events it organizes."

In addition to the Tour, ASO also promotes several events currently on the ProTour calendar.

Clerc said the UCI's proposals, which have not been published, would "relegate historic races such as Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris-Nice to a 'European' calendar."

"These races have always been part of an international calendar," added Clerc, who said the UCI's proposals were "unacceptable" and "threatened to harm" the prestige of the races.

The UCI introduced the ProTour calendar three years ago in a bid to promote a rich series of races open only to top teams and riders.

However, powerful organizers from all three so-called grand tours have consistently opposed the ProTour, which has no system of relegation or promotion for teams and has led to the disappearance of a number of smaller races.