May 13, 2007, 12:33 GMT
Hamburg - Doping in cycling has not been rooted out by a Spanish probe and is practised at the current Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, German anti-doping activist Werner Franke claimed.
'Doping continues,' Franke told Germany's Focus news magazine in a report made available ahead of Monday's publication.
Franke said that there were 'huge holes' in the test mechanisms which were unable to detect certain hormones and blood doping substances similar to EPO.
Franke, who helped uncover systematic doping in East German sport after the nation's reunification, recently filed charges against two team doctors of the T-Mobile team who were linked to doping by a former masseur of the German team.
Former T-Mobile rider Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France champion, is one of the riders implicated in the Spanish probe known as Operation Puerto, which centres on Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
Ullrich has retired and protests his innocence, while another famous rider, the 2006 Giro winner, Ivan Basso, said last week he intended to dope himself via Fuentes.
Basso's statements were criticised as half-hearted and possibly intended to get a reduced ban, but cycling supremo Pat McQuaid insisted on Saturday at the start of the 2007 Giro that Basso must face the full force of the sports doping laws.
'He lied to everybody and he does not deserve our sympathy,' said the UCI president McQuaid.
McQuaid said that the UCI will go before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if Basso doesn't get the mandatory two-year ban by the Italian federation.
According to the Gazzetta Dello Sport daily, Basso faces a provisional ban until further witnesses have been heard.
The paper also said that prosecutors in Lucca, Italy, have launched an investigation against Italian doctor Luigi Cecchini, who has worked with Basso, Ullrich and other top riders.
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