Giro winner Danilo Di Luca said he was relieved after a career-threatening doping charge was rejected, telling his fans he was already gearing to repeat his 2007 success.
''I feel good, I'm happy, it's as if a great weight has been lifted from me,'' Di Luca told ANSA over the phone from his home in Pescara after a sports judge turned down a prosecutor's request for a two-year ban.
''I haven't been able to take part in the Belgian classics but I'm getting ready for the Giro. I trained this morning too, to ease the tension, and I'm in better shape.
''I'll be trying to get to the start line in Palermo at the top of my form''.
The round-Italy contest, the world's biggest stage race after the Tour de France, kicks off in the Sicilian capital on May 10.
Di Luca added that he wasn't thinking of suing anyone ''even though I've effectively lost a year of my life''.
