Italy's cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin, who was ordered to return his medal last month because of a positive doping test from last year's Beijing Olympics, has said he can prove he is innocent.

"With my lawyers we have discovered too many mysteries in the saga," Rebellin, who is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, told Wednesday's Gazzetta dello Sport in his first public comments for months.

"I have never taken (blood-booster) CERA. One anomaly is that seven samples have been attributed to me. But how can that be if I did only three dope tests?"