The UCI have introduced that Colombian biking star Miguel Ángel López has obtained a four-year ban for doping.
In a long-running case, López, 30, has been discovered responsible of an anti-doping rule violation for “use and possession of a prohibited substance, Menotropin,” the UCI press launch mentioned, through the 2022 Giro d’Italia.
The assertion added, “In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Guidelines, the interval of suspension began on 25 July 2023 and can stay in power till 24 July 2027”.
López, who final raced with the Medellin-EPM squad till he was provisionally suspended halfway via 2023, has repeatedly insisted on his innocence.
The UCI assertion confirmed that the proceedings in opposition to López started on account of proof obtained by the Spanish Guardia Civil and the nation’s anti-doping organisation, CELAD, through the course of an in depth police investigation into a medication ring codenamed Operación Ilex that started in 2021. This proof was in flip dealt with by the Unbiased Testing Company (ITA).
Menotropin is a banned substance used within the remedy of fertility disturbances.
Operacion Ilex continues to be ongoing within the Spanish courts, centring on the alleged actions of a college professor, Dr Marcos Maynar and a doping ring that equipped each banned and authorized substances to a number of athletes.
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Maynar was arrested on Could eleventh, in the future after López’s shock withdrawal from the Giro d’Italia resulting from a leg harm and was initially charged with a criminal offense in opposition to public well being, drug trafficking and cash laundering.
Dr Maynar has repeatedly insisted he isn’t responsible of any offences and has denied giving banned substances to Lopez.
López himself was briefly suspended by his final WorldTour group, Astana Qazaqstan, over the allegations earlier than being definitively let go by the squad in December 2022. He was additionally as soon as briefly questioned by Spanish police when flying in from Colombia.
Properly-known for his fiery character, which noticed him half methods with Movistar after he deserted the 2021 Vuelta a Espana on the final stage in a dispute over group assist, López abilities as a climber helped convey him appreciable success.
Having triumphed within the Tour de L’Avenir in 2014, the Colombian gained the hardest stage of the 2020 Tour de France over the Col de Loze, on the Lagos de Covadonga within the 2021 Vuelta in addition to taking outright victories within the Tour de Suisse and Volta a Catalunya.
In 2023, previous to his definitive suspension, he racked up a minimum of 28 wins, virtually all in Nationwide or 1.2/2.2 races, and together with eight out of 9 levels within the Vuelta a Colombia. His greatest victory got here within the now regrettably defunct Vuelta a San Juan, ranked 2.HC.
López can now enchantment in opposition to the anti-doping sentence at CAS, the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport, for a interval of as much as one month.
Lopez himself already filed a case with the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport in opposition to Astana for wrongful dismissal and final month, there have been unconfirmed studies that he had gained the case and the Kazakh group must pay Lopez his again wage. In the meantime, the circumstances arising from Ilex, wherein Lopez will not be going through any fees, are nonetheless but to be heard in full within the Spanish courts.
