Valverde's appeal is upheld by CAS

STUTTGART, Germany -- Alejandro Valverde can compete in the world road cycling championships after a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday, the chief of world cycling Pat McQuaid announced.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) wanted to prevent Spaniard Valverde, twice a silver medallist in the elite men's race, from the world event, because of their belief that he was implicated in the 'Operation Puerto' doping affair.

The Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) supported Valverde, whose late appeal to CAS, in an effort to compete in Sunday's road race, the blue riband event of the championships, has paid off.

Valverde has always denied being involved in the Spanish doping affair.

Giro d'Italia champion Danilo Di Luca could be excluded from Sunday's road race because of new inquiries into his alleged links with doping.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) found abnormal results in a surprise test taken during Di Luca's Giro win in June and is awaiting lab analysis from other controls taken by the UCI for comparison purposes.

CONI has been waiting for the UCI test results for three months and said it received an explanation from the UCI that Di Luca's consent was required before divulging the findings.

Di Luca has always denied doping.

On Wednesday, Di Luca offered his consent to the UCI to transfer the results of a "B" sample from the 17th stage of the Giro on May 30, the Italian cycling federation said.

The 17th stage was a climb up Monte Zoncolan, considered the toughest in this year's race. Di Luca finished fourth, 31 seconds behind stage winner Gilberto Simoni.

The federation added Di Luca would travel Thursday with the Italy team to the worlds in Stuttgart, Germany.

Australian cyclist Allan Davis has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a bid to overturn his exclusion from Sunday's road race for alleged links to doping.

Davis' lawyer made an application for his case to be heard in Switzerland on Friday and expects a decision the same day.

"I am optimistic that I will be racing on Sunday," Davis said in a statement.

He has been training in Spain and expects to join the Australian team in Germany on Thursday.

Lars Boom of the Netherlands won the men's under-23 time trial on a hilly course at the world championships on Wednesday.

Boom covered the 23.6-mile course on the streets of Stuttgart in 48 minutes, 57.93 seconds.

Russia's Mikhail Ignatiev came in nine seconds later to earn the silver. Ignatiev won the 2005 race and finished second last year.

Jerome Coppel of France also repeated his bronze medal from last year, finishing 46 seconds behind Boom.

Hanka Kupfernagel beat defending champion Kristin Armstrong of the United States to win the gold medal in the women's elite time trial.

The German, who won the bronze medal in the event in 1998, started early and held her lead after covering the 15.6-mile course on the hilly streets of Stuttgart in 34 minutes, 44 seconds.

Armstrong, who also has a bronze from the 2005 competition, came in 23 seconds behind. Christiane Soeder of Austria was third, 42 seconds behind the winner.

Kupfernagel started 10th, while Armstrong was the last of 49 riders to go. But the American was consistently behind at the splits. E-mail to a friend