Miguel Ángel López handed four-year doping ban for “use and possession” of human growth hormone during 2022 Giro d’Italia

Tour de France stage winner and grand tour podium finisher Miguel Ángel López has been slapped with a four-year suspension by the UCI, after the world governing body’s Anti-Doping Tribunal ruled that the 30-year-old was guilty of possessing and using the human growth hormone menotropin during the 2022 Giro d’Italia, which López abandoned on stage four.

The mercurial Colombian climber was sacked by Astana – the team he represented for seven of his eight seasons as a professional in Europe – in December 2022 after the Kazakh squad claimed that it “had discovered new elements” linking him to alleged doping doctor Marcos Maynar.

These “new elements”, Spanish newspaper ABC reported at the time, relate to a document claiming that López received a dose of menotropin, a human growth hormone that increases muscle mass and eliminate fluids, before the start of the 2022 Giro in Hungary.

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López was initially, and briefly, suspended by Astana in July 2022 after reports first emerged that the Colombian was being investigated for his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking ring in Spain, led by physiologist Maynar, who was arrested two months before and charged with crimes against public health, drug trafficking, and money laundering as part of the Spanish police’s Operation Ilex investigation.

López was welcomed back into the Astana fold a few weeks later, however, and finished fourth overall at last year’s Vuelta a España.

He was eventually sacked when the fresh allegations emerged in December of his “probable links” to Maynar, and spent much of the start of 2023 dominating the South American racing scene for Team Medellín–EPM, before the UCI provisionally suspended him from action in July.

(Alex Whitehead SWpix.com)

According to a UCI statement today, the disciplinary proceedings against López, who enjoyed an ill-fated spell with Movistar in 2021, were initiated in the wake of an investigation conducted by the International Testing Agency (ITA).

The ITA’s investigation was based on evidence obtained from the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Spanish Anti-Doping Organisation (CELAD) as part of its Operation Ilex digging into the alleged doping programme run by Maynar.

López, who has always maintained his innocence, has a month to appeal his ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

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After he was dismissed by Astana in December 2022, López described his sacking as “a clear case of abusive termination without just cause” and maintained that he has “never tested positive”.

“The rider hereby informs that he considers such decision as with no cause, and that there are no new facts which could justify such decision, not known or reported before November 2022 by Astana Team,” a statement prepared by his lawyers said at the time.

“The rider rejects any allegation that could damage his name and honour as professional rider, and reminds that he has never tested positive for any drugs or doping, nor has he been investigated by any authority.

“Mr. Miguel Angel Lopez hereby informs that he will defend his rights before the corresponding Courts, in a case which he understands as a clear case of abusive termination without just cause.”

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One of the outstanding climbers of his generation, López has won three stages of the Vuelta a España, a race he has finished third, fourth, fifth, and eighth at on GC during his career.

In 2020, López – known as ‘Superman’ – also won a stage of the Tour de France on the Col de la Loze, the highest point of that year’s race, and in 2018 finished on the podium of both the Vuelta and the Giro d’Italia. He has also secured overall wins at the Volta a Catalunya and Tour de Suisse.

However, the 30-year-old has been viewed as a mercurial, often temperamental, character throughout his career in Europe. At the 2019 Giro, he attracted controversy after repeatedly hitting a fan who caused him to crash on one of the race’s climbs.

And at the 2021 Vuelta, he endured a very public falling out with his Movistar team, abandoning the race on its penultimate stage in protest against the team’s tactics, despite starting the day in third place overall.