Madrid/Rome  - A Madrid judge ruled Wednesday that Italian anti-doping proceedings against Alejandro Valverde are "null and void," but the Spanish cyclist said that he would appear anyway in an effort to clear his name.

Madrid Judge Antonio Serrano ruled that proceedings initiated against Valverde by Italy's National Olympic Committee (CONI) made unlawful use of blood samples seized from alleged doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, in an investigation against the winner of the UCI ProTour championships in 2006 and 2008.

Serrano - who is leading Operacion Puerto, the biggest doping case in cycling history, discovered by Spanish police three years ago - said nothing about the allegations made by CONI against Valverde.

Instead, the judge focused on questions of form and stressed that the Italian institution should not have made use of the Operacion Puerto blood samples.

CONI used blood tests that were made on 21 riders including Valverde after a Tour de France stage on July 21 in Italy. Italian media reports said that follow-up DNA tests matched the blood samples to samples seized by police from the laboratory of Spanish doctor Fuentes in the Operacion Puerto investigation.

Valverde had been summoned to appear on Monday before CONI. His lawyer, Frederico Cecconi, stated that the hearing had been postponed until Friday to allow the cyclist's legal team more time to work on the case. CONI had finally decided to give Valverde until Thursday.

Following Judge Serrano's ruling, Valverde told Spanish media that he would still go to Rome.

"I will defend my image and give my side of the story," he said.

Earlier, Valverde's agent, Paco Sanchez Sabater, made it clear that he did not think the cyclist should attend the hearing.

"If it is not compulsory for him to attend. My advice is that he should not attend," Sanchez Sabater said.

More than 50 cyclists were believed to be clients of Fuentes, who was accused of running a doping network.

Earlier this year, Spanish judicial authorities reopened the investigation, which followed police raids in May 2006 that turned up large quantities of anabolic steroids, equipment used for blood transfusions and more than 200 bags of blood.

Judge Serrano noted that Operacion Puerto blood samples cannot be used in other proceedings while the investigation in Madrid is ongoing. Moreover, the judge noted, CONI is not a judicial institution and cannot take on the attributes of a special prosecutor for doping cases.

The intervention of the Madrid judge caused relative relief among Spanish cycling fans. Experts had predicted that Valverde would have a tough time before CONI.

"Alejandro goes to Rome as a lamb to a slaughterhouse," the Spanish daily El Mundo quoted a source close to the cyclist as saying. (dpa)