Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso is ready to race again after the Italian Olympic Committee recommended that doping allegations against him be dropped.
``Now my goal is to win races again,'' Basso said in sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, a day after the Olympic body's anti-doping commission said it would ask the Italian Cycling Federation to close the case.
``I always continued to train with the aim of returning to racing once the situation was resolved,'' said the cyclist, who has been suspended since July.
Basso was one of nine riders _ including 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich _ excluded from this year's Tour de France after being implicated in a Spanish doping investigation.
The riders were on a list of cyclists who allegedly had contact with a Spanish doctor accused of running a blood doping clinic in Madrid.
``I'll win the Giro again or the Tour and I'll sweep aside any doubts. People don't just want to see the case closed, they want to see me win,'' Basso said.
However, Basso said his Danish CSC team had decided not to field him in Saturday's Giro di Lombardia, the final men's Pro Tour race of the season.
``That means I'll go pedalling alone, on my roads, for the first time as a free person,'' he said.
Basso is under contract with CSC until 2008.
Team spokesman Brian Nygaard said Basso and CSC manager Bjarne Riis met Thursday in Lugano, Switzerland.
``There is a dialogue going on about Ivan's future on the team,'' Nygaard told The Associated Press by telephone. ``His future has not been decided yet and until we have a clarification, we don't see any reason to let him race.''
The rider, who won the Giro d'Italia in May for his first major title and was one of the pre-race favourites for the Tour de France, always denied the doping allegations.
``I've never had anything to be ashamed of,'' he said in the interview. ``My win in the Giro was not a surprise. I was coming off four consecutive Tours in which I finished among the leaders.''
