Vuelta a España runner-up Santiago Perez declared his innocenceof blood doping on Sunday, just weeks after his American Phonak teammateTyler Hamilton apparently failed a similar test.

"The news I have been given is that they have detected irregularitiesin my blood as a consequence of a transfusion from another person," Perezsaid. "All I can say is that I have not undergone any type of blood transfusion. I am not sure what they are talking about. I am sure that the truth will come out very soon and it will show that none of what they are accusing me of is true."

Perez's positive for blood doping is only the second ever after Olympictime-trial champion Hamilton first produced a positive result in Athens and then had both his A and B samples show positive at the Vuelta.

Perez was the big surprise of this year's Vuelta

Photo: AFP (file photo)

The 27-year-old Perez was the revelation of the three-week Spanish racein September, winning three stages and finishing second overall behindLiberty Seguras's Roberto Heras.

The Swiss-based Phonak team issued a statement Sunday confirming thatthe the Union Cycliste Internationale notified team officials about thepositive test result obtained on Perez on October 5 at UCI headquartersin Switzerland.

Phonak has now suspended both Perez and Hamilton but have questioned the scientific validity of the testing method for illicit blood transfusions.

"Because this test's soundness and interpretation are still being disputed,the team management is maintaining the rider's innocence," Phonak saidon Sunday, referring to Perez.

Hamilton twice tested positive for a blood transfusion in September,first in Athens after winning the Olympic time-trial gold medal and thenafter winning a time-trial in the Vuelta  However, the International Olympic Committee said the result of theB sample in Athens was "non-conclusive" because the sample had been destroyedby being deep-frozen. (see "Olympiccase dropped against Hamilton; Still facing Vuelta sanctions").

Blood doping is a means of enhancing an athlete's endurance by increasingthe amount of oxygen-carrying red cells in the blood stream, using either hisown blood or the blood of a donor with the same blood type. In this case, the newly developed Australian test can detect only blood from a donor.

The test is able to detect cells with different antigen receptors than those of the athlete's own. The result, says the test's developer, are "indisputable," but Hamilton, Perez and Phonak disagree.

While the technology behind the test is 30 years old, it has only recently been applied to the fight against doping in sport. Phonak team officials have assembled their own panel of experts to dispute the accuracy of the methods employed.

"If it turns out that the new test delivers clear and reliable data for aflawless interpretation and that the previous UCI tests are confirmed, thenboth riders would have to be dismissed in accordance with our regulations,"the team said. "In the event that they are shown to be innocent, then both Perez and Hamilton will remain on the 2005 team."

Under UCI rules, the 33-year-old Hamilton faces a likely two-year ban after the positive test after he won the stage 8 time trial at the Vuelta.