Italian cycling star Ivan Basso made a public confession of involvement in a doping scam Tuesday - the first top cyclist to come clean in a sport that has been dogged by drugs scandals.
Giro d'Italia holder Basso claimed, however, that he was only guilty of "attempting" to take drugs ahead of last year's Tour de France - an attempt that was uncovered in the Operacion Puerto Spanish doping sting that took place between the Italian and French classics.
"I have never taken doped substances," Basso said at a press conference here, a day after telling the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) he was ready to clear his chest.
"I have admitted to an attempt to commit doping in view of the Tour de France and I'm ready to serve my penalty".
Basso declined to elaborate when quizzed on exactly what 'attempted doping' meant.
Basso was excluded from last year's Tour de France after being implicated in Operacion Puerto along with former Tour winner Jan Ullrich of Germany - who recently retired - and 50 other professional riders.
The probe into the activities of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes uncovered steroids, transfusion equipment and bags of blood.
Basso admitted some of those bags of blood were his, but claimed he had never used them.
The cyclist, who had previously denied any wrongdoing, said the 'attempted doping' was an act of "weakness that will stay with me all of my life"
But he stressed that "I intend to pay in order to return to racing with peace of mind".
The 29-year-old also insisted that "I have obtained all my victories in an honest way and no one has ever contested what I did at the Giro in 2006 or any of the other results of my career".
Basso said he was fully cooperating with CONI's doping prosecutors.
BASSO'S EXAMPLE MAY BREAK OMERTA'.
The Spanish judicial authorities closed the Operacion Puerto probe in March without pressing charges, while CONI's investigators closed their case against Basso in October.
But CONI's anti-doping office reopened their investigation last month and Basso quit the Discovery Channel team as a result.
The rider said he decided to confess on Monday because the case had caused "a year of turmoil, greater than glory and money, and not because my back was against the wall".
CONI Chief Gianni Petrucci praised Basso's courage in breaking the sport's code of silence - which he likened to the Sicilian Mafia's omerta' - concerning doping.
"Ivan Basso's decision to cooperate with investigators is very significant for the whole of cycling," Petrucci said Tuesday.
"It is the first time that a cyclist has chosen to collaborate. Naturally, we have not resolved the problem of doping, but we are starting to see a little light.
"It's an important sign. It means that the world of cycling is starting to understand that it's no use blaming others all the time".
Basso's example prompted another Italian cyclist, 27-year-old climber Michele Scarpone, to admit his links to Operation Puerto on Tuesday.
Like Basso, Scarponi said he too was ready to work with CONI investigators for the good of the sport.
Basso faces a ban of up to two years although his offer to cooperate may lead to softer punishment.
Basso's confession is another blow to the credibility of a sport that has been ravaged by performance-enhancing-drug scandals in recent years.
Almost one year after the event, American cyclist Floyd Landis still risks being stripped of last year's Tour de France crown and banned after testing positive during the race.
Landis's case has dragged on as he has put up a determined battle to defend himself.
The most illustrious, and ultimately tragic, victim of doping scandals was Italy's Marco 'the Pirate' Pantani.
Pantani's career peaked when he won the Tour and the Giro in 1998, emulating legends like Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartoli - only to take a downturn into doping scandals the next year when he was thrown off the 1999 Giro on the eve of winning it again.
After several aborted comebacks that disappointed his legions of fans, he died of a cocaine overdose in 2004.
