Lance Armstrong, who fought off cancer to win four Tours de France, said yesterday he would continue working with drug-tainted Italian doctor Michele Ferrari.

The 31-year-old Texan told Le Figaro that he worked on a daily basis with his full-time coach Chris Carmichael but had a periodic but limited six-year collaboration with Ferrari.

"I am not ashamed of it, quite the contrary," he said. "There has never been the slightest ambiguity between us. I have never suspected him of anything, and until I have proof to the contrary I will continue to be fully confident in him.

"What counts for me is not yah-di-dah but facts, nothing but facts."

Ferrari, who used to work for the Italian Olympic Committee, has been charged in Italy for administering dangerous substances. His trial resumes in February. Ferrari is suspected of giving many top riders the blood-doping endurance enhancer EPO (erythropoeitin).

Armstrong believes former rival Jan Ullrich was wrong to turn down a move to the CSC team run by former Telekom team-mate Bjarne Riis. The American said Riis, who turned down Ullrich's demands for a reported $1.5 million a year, would have revived the 29-year-old German's career.

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France champion, is suspended from competition until March 23rd after testing positive last June for amphetamines he took in a nightclub. He is to join Team Coast, run by Jan Pevenage, the sporting director of Ullrich's Telekom team for eight years.

An autopsy is to be held today into the death of 32-year-old Italian cyclist Denis Zanette. Zanette died on Friday after having his teeth cleaned at a dentist in his home town of Pordenone, with initial medical reports saying he had suffered a heart attack.

The substitute public prosecutor of Pordenone, Antonella Dragotto, has opened an investigation.

"It is a strange death. A man of 32 years of age, full of life, collapses aftera heart attack. We want to get to the bottom of the affair to ascertain any eventual responsibility," said Dragotto. "We want to verify if this death had anything to do with doping."

Zanette was under investigation as part of a probe that followed police raids on team hotels at the Giro d'Italia race in 2001, though he had never tested positive for doping.