AFP - The anti-doping tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) on Monday suspended Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde from competing on Italian soil for two years, the Ansa news agency announced.
  
Valverde was punished for his role in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal.
  
The Spaniard can therefore not compete in any race that takes place in Italian territory, ruling him out of the next Tour de France, the 16th stage of which passes through Italy's Val D'Aosta region on July 21.
  
On April 1, CONI's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri called for Valverde to be suspended for "violating the code of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA)".
  
Valverde subsequently announced that he was launching a lawsuit against Torri.