Valverde's dog to testify before Court of Arbitration in Sport.

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Valverde's dog to testify before Court of Arbitration in Sport.

Piti speaks at last.

On Wednesday the CAS will grill Valverde’s former Kelme team-mate Jesús Manzano about Valverde’s alleged doping. But the real fireworks will happen when they put Valverde’s dog Piti on the stand.

The Alsatian has been at the center of the Spaniard’s doping allegations ever since bags of blood coded Valv. piti were seized in Operacion Puerto. Until now legal maneuvering has prevented the authorities from putting the dog under oath.

A spokesman for the UCI and WADA hopes testimony from Piti will implicate Valverde. “Nobody knows more about Valverde and Puerto than Piti. He takes the dog everywhere. Piti is definitely the key,” said an informed source.

Antonio Sánchez Sabater, Valverde’s representative, questioned the hard-ball tactics of the CAS tribunal. “They’re pressuring the dog and I find this highly irregular. Valverde walks and feeds Piti but the animal is not involved on a sporting level,” said Sabater.

However, CONI prosecutor Ettore Torri Vuelta pulled no punches on the Spanish rider: “Valverde is a doper. Even the intention to use the contents of the blood bag is against the code laid down by WADA. And Piti has seen everything.”

Legal experts were divided on what useful testimony, if any, a dog could provide. “Dogs have no capacity for language the way humans do, so I see very little to be gained,” said Aldo Bottocelli, a prominent attorney. “Barking is not evidence in any judiciary sense.”

But Valverde may still be in hot water when Piti is questioned. According to renowned animal behaviorist Claude de Chien, “Alsatians are the third most intelligent dog after the border collie and poodle. You ask a simple, direct question, they understand. Do not underestimate this dog. The raise of a paw, an affirmative bark and you have your answers.”

Perhaps Operacion Puerto will not go out with a whimper but a bark.

By |2019-02-03T16:32:17-08:00January 13th, 2010|Doping, Humor|3 Comments

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3 Comments

  1. Mike Pardue January 13, 2010 at 12:12 pm - Reply

    Alsatian’s are very loyal.There’s no way Piti will give Valverde up.He will just claim it was his blood all along.After all it was him name on the bag.There could be some truth to this.Rumors abound that back in 2006 Piti could easily jump a 6ft fence to chase the postman and now he can just barely clear a 4ft fence…coincidence???

    • walshworld January 13, 2010 at 5:47 pm - Reply

      Nice! Very funny and yeah, the fence data does inplicate Piti. Let’s hope CAS gets to the bottom of this.

  2. Maribel Campbell January 29, 2010 at 6:42 am - Reply

    Very good post. I've found your blog via Bing and I'm really glad about the information you provide in your posts. Btw your blogs layout is really broken on the Kmelon browser. Would be really great if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the good work!

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