Miguel Ángel 'Superman' López, in the 2020 Tour stage at Col de la Loze, which he won. BETTINI PHOTO (Europa Press)
The Astana team has fired Miguel Ángel
Superman
López, who, as the Colombian cyclist himself recalls, had renewed his contract last November.
The reason given, in a laconic statement, by Alexander Vinokurov's team, is that they have received "new information" about the "probable connection" of the Pesca climber, as a consumer, in the plot of prohibited substances allegedly directed from Cáceres by the Dr. Marcos Maynar recently dismantled by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard under the orders of a court in Cáceres in the so-called Operation Ilex.
This "new information", and the investigation documents that prove it, in particular those related to an injection of the menotropin hormone that López allegedly received in Budapest before the start of the Giro in the Hungarian capital and that caused inflammation that forced to withdraw from the Italian race, as this newspaper has learned, they reached Vinokurov through the International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent agency that manages doping matters for the International Cycling Union (UCI) and with the that the Civil Guard collaborates.
Neither the Civil Guard investigators, nor the court, nor the Spanish anti-doping agency (CELAD), to which the Cáceres judge has denied appearance in the case, have the power to inform the UCI and the ITA of the new data. incriminating.
Official statement on Miguel Angel Lopez:
📰👉https://t.co/TVqiG0hSzr
— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) December 12, 2022
"If the Cáceres judge had allowed us to appear in the case when she discovered that there were indications of doping practice, we would have had the elements to open disciplinary proceedings or report directly to the ITA," says José Luis Terreros, director of CELAD, an agency that maintains a close collaboration with the Civil Guard investigators.
“We are tied hand and foot.
In any case, we are not giving up and we are trying to appear as a private prosecution”.
Considered, like Egan Bernal and Sergio Higuita, one of the most brilliant cyclists of the Colombian generation that emerged after Nairo Quintana and Esteban Chaves, Miguel
Superman
López, 28, has won major mountain stages in the Vuelta and Tour, has been on the podium in the Italian and Spanish races, and has won the Volta a Catalunya, and yet he has not been able to complete the last two seasons with their respective teams.
In 2021, Movistar, his previous team, fired him just nine months into his contract after he got off his bike and withdrew from the Vuelta in the penultimate stage, days after winning the queen stage, when he verified that he was going to missing out on a final podium spot while teammate Enric Mas kept it.
He signed for Astana, returning to his team for his entire professional life, since 2015, since he was 20 years old.
The problems with Vinokurov's squad began to grow with his withdrawal from the Giro, and they increased in August,
when he was questioned by the Civil Guard at the Barajas airport before joining the Vuelta.
The team temporarily suspended him, but upon verifying that he had testified as a witness in the Maynar case, and not as being investigated, they reinstated him in time to compete in the Vuelta, which finished fourth behind Evenepoel, Mas and Ayuso.
Relations seemed to be reestablished well, so well that in November he signed a contract extension until December 2023. The honeymoon did not last even a month and ended in Altea (Alicante), where the team is concentrated, when a collaborator has started, probably, to deliver papers to the UCI.
He reinstated him with time to play the Vuelta, which finished fourth after Evenepoel, Mas and Ayuso.
Relations seemed to be reestablished well, so well that in November he signed a contract extension until December 2023. The honeymoon did not last even a month and ended in Altea (Alicante), where the team is concentrated, when a collaborator has started, probably, to deliver papers to the UCI.
He reinstated him with time to play the Vuelta, which finished fourth after Evenepoel, Mas and Ayuso.
Relations seemed to be reestablished well, so well that in November he signed a contract extension until December 2023. The honeymoon did not last even a month and ended in Altea (Alicante), where the team is concentrated, when a collaborator has started, probably, to deliver papers to the UCI.
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