German Andreas Kloden of the Astana team retained his overall lead after the seventh and final stage to win the 42nd Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Tuesday.
Koldo Fernandez of the Euskaltel team won the 177km stage between Civitella del Tronto and San Benedetto del Tronto in 4hr 38mins 43secs after a bunch sprint. It was the Spaniard's first win since he turned professional in 2004.
Australian Stuart O'Grady came in second and Italian Gabriele Balducci was third.
PHOTO: EPA
Italian sprint king Alessandro Petacchi was a notable absentee at the finish line after another competitor fell in front of him.
"At about 2km from the finish line there was a fall in front of me," he explained. "Thankfully I wasn't involved, but it spoiled my finish."
Kloden finished top of the overall standings with a time of 28:31:26.
Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen was second and Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan was third.
The Tirreno-Adriatico race runs between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts and is an important warm-up for the Milan-San Remo classic race, which takes place on March 24.
Meanwhile, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wants to keep the Operation Puerto doping case open.
WADA said on Tuesday it has asked for access to the case file of the Spanish investigation, which was dropped by a judge last week without any charges.
"WADA hopes that the relevant evidence will become available soon and that the judge will allow the use of the entire file for disciplinary purposes," WADA said in a statement. "WADA will continue to work with the Spanish authorities and the sports movement ... so that cheaters can be sanctioned and removed from competition."
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has also vowed to pursue its own investigation. The UCI can sanction athletes even without positive tests.
"However, it is not clear which evidence can be used as of now, since the judge ruled last year that the evidence garnered from the investigation could not be used by sports authorities as the basis for punishing athletes until the criminal investigation is completed," WADA said.
The probe started last May when sports physician Eufemiano Fuentes, coach Manolo Saiz and six other suspects were arrested in Madrid on suspicion of providing doping services to cyclists.
The investigation implicated more than 50 cyclists and led to pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso and seven others riders being excluded from last year's Tour de France. The allegations also forced two teams to dissolve when their sponsors backed out.
But Judge Antonio Serrano dropped the case in a ruling released on March 12 because the Spanish law in place at the time of the seizure penalized doping only if it harmed a person's health.
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