The Kazakh team discovered “new elements” in its investigations that directly conflict with its internal regulations
One more time, superman López is back in the news, and not because of his performance on the bike. After many hesitations since he was registered at the Barajas Airport last July due to his alleged involvement with a doping network, The Astana team announced on Monday the termination of the contract of the Colombian cyclist for his “probable connection” with the Spanish doctor Marcos Maynararrested last May accused of drug trafficking not authorized in Spain.
“The Astana Qazaqstan team discovered new elements that show the probable connection of Miguel Ángel López with Doctor Marcos Maynar. Consequently, the team had no other solution than to terminate the contract between the team and the rider, based on breaches of said contract and the internal rules of the team, with immediate effect. To preserve the rights of the team and the rider, no further comment will be made,” Astana said in a statement.
Superman he signed last year for the Kazakh team, where he had already been between 2015 and 2020 before signing for the Movistar Teamand had a contract until the end of the 2023 campaign. Last July it was suspended by Astana after learning that he was being investigated for an alleged crime of drug trafficking and until “all the circumstances of the case” were clarified, but it was lifted days later in the “absence of any finding.”
To the athletes that his network captured, Maynar offered training preparation, nutritional supplementation, and the supply for the consumption of drugs and substances prohibited in sport. These athletes, who paid an annual fee of about 3,000 euroswere subjected to a previous study through analytical and stress tests carried out in the facilities of the Faculty of Sports Sciences of Extremadura, in which the doctor performs teaching tasks.
TRAJECTORY AND CONTROVERSIES
If everything indicated by the investigations is confirmed, This could mean the end of the professional career of one of the most promising climbers to have appeared in the last decade.. López, as a youth, won the Tour of the Future when he was only 20 years old. Already as a professional, he revealed himself as potential dominators of the peloton with a superb performance in the 2017 Vuelta a España, in which he achieved two stage victories and the youth classification. 2018 was the season of his consecration, achieving third place in the general classification of Vuelta y Giro.
Since then, the Colombian has been involved in numerous controversies and has ceased to be news due to its results: an attack on a fan in the Gitro d’Italia in 2019, insults to those who would be his future teammates in Movistar in the Vuelta of the same year (he referred to the team as “the same usual idiots” when they attacked en bloc after a fall) and, most recently, the historic scare in the Vuelta last year, which ended with López getting off the bike in the middle of the stage considering that he deserved more team support (that year , Movistar) at a time of crisis.
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