Franco Pellizotti is in talks with several major teams, including Team Sky, Astana, Geox and Movistar, after he was cleared of a biological passport violation by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
The Italian was named by the UCI as one of three riders with suspicious biological passport data late in May. He has always denied doping and was cleared last week because of a lack of evidence that variations to his blood values were caused by doping.
The UCI has yet to decide if it will appeal against the verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In the meantime the Italian stage race rider is free to race again and has attracted lots of interest for 2011.
"Franco is on holiday but we're working hard to find him a new contract," his agent Alex Carera told Cyclingnews.
"Several teams have shown interesting in signing him, including Sky, Astana, Movistar, Geox and Acqua & Sapone. His contract with Liquigas ends this year but we're also talking to them because they've been so supportive."
"I've spoken directly to Dave Brailsford at Team Sky but the interest came from Sky Italia and the team's bike sponsor Pinarello. I've got to talk to Franco about the interest when he gets back from his holidays next week but a decision could be made soon about his future."
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
