Only the nickname remained of Superman. Fall. He went down to the very bottom

First, two words about why we’re meeting here. Recognizing Miguel Angel Lopez as one of the best Colombian cyclists in recent years is definitely not enough. “Superman”, as he is called in the peloton, is one of the top competitors from South America. in history and is only 28 years old. He has won the podium of the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, won four stages of the Grand Tours, including the royal stage of the 2020 Tour de France, which ended with a climb to the Col de la Loze, and a number of triumphs in smaller World Tour races, such as the Tour de Suisse and Volta and Catalunya.

But that’s one side of the coin. Lopez also proved to be a difficult man. There are also some very strange excesses on his account, such as leaving the route on the penultimate stage of the 2021 Vuelta a Espana, when he took offense at the sporting directors of the Movistar team, who did not order his colleagues to help him in a crisis.

Contacts and carelessness

2022 has been a real rollercoaster for Superman. On the one hand, his sports results were fully defended: the fourth place in the Spanish Vuelta, where he fought for the podium until the end, or several other top places in prestigious events, were certainly not the reason for the Astana team to end cooperation with him. And yet, the breakup happened. And almost everything indicates that it was not about sport here.

Lopez is one of those involved in “Operation Ilex”, the latest doping scandal in Spanish sport. What’s more, given the media reports and names revolving around the case, such as Dr. Marco Maynar Merina, known to prescribe anabolic steroids and EPO, the excellent climber was not particularly careful and had no problem contacting people like the one mentioned above (other names remain secret from the courts) involved in various doping excesses over the past 20 years.

Spanish tradition

Why should everything still be labeled as alleged player fault? The Spaniards have accustomed us to the fact that they do not always make transparent decisions when a doping case should be resolved – they do not disclose the names of the people involved not only to the public, but also to employees of anti-doping organizations.

This is not the first time that some issues seem to be swept under the rug. It was the same in the case of the now legendary Puerto operation in 2006, which involved the elite of athletes in the Iberian Peninsula, including Real Madrid and FC Barcelona players who used the services of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.

Although it has been almost 20 years since the judicial operation in cooperation with the Guardia Civil, still no one has officially published a list of people associated with Fuentes. In fact, even the doctor’s name has not been linked to the Puerto operation in public communications, although in 2013 he was officially sentenced to a year’s suspended prison sentence and a four-year ban on practicing medicine.

To this day, we also do not know who used the services of Fuentes, who prepared doping therapy for the players, but also had no problem transfusing their blood at his office. This is due to the court’s decision, according to which all data from Fuentes’ computer, as well as bags with customer blood, preserved over the years, were destroyed.

How does Operation Ilex relate to Operation Puerto? At the end of November, the Spanish judges again stated that no name – neither Merina (which has been in the media for months anyway) nor the athletes involved – will be transferred to the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency. Thus, athletes who have probably used doping cannot be suspended, because WADA cannot prove anything to them.

Why are the names of athletes not made public again? We can only guess. Would the players of the biggest football clubs in Spain and, for example, leading tennis players be among those involved?

More than a client

Coming back to Lopez: if “Superman” was just Merina’s client, his name would still not appear in any information regarding the Ilex operation. The Colombian’s problem is that he was more than a customer.

It all started in the second half of July 2022, when Lopez returned to Spain from Colombia. The news spread quickly on the network that the player was detained by the Spanish border guard, who found drugs illegal in the southern European country in his luggage. Medicines that were most likely needed by Merina in continuing her – not always legal – work.

As a result, Miguel Angel Lopez was suspended by Astana. It didn’t last long though. Finally, the Spanish Vuelta was approaching, during which the Colombian was supposed to be the team leader. Among other things, for this reason, the player was suspended after only a few days, and his start in the third of the Grand Tours was more than certain.

When “Superman” again showed off his driving in the Spanish mountains, later finishing the season decently with starts in the Italian classics, it seemed that the case was closed. After all, everyone knew that the Colombian had a problem with making the right decisions, and the offense in July was treated as a kind of giddiness.

The subject – unfortunately for Lopez – returned in mid-December. Although it was heard in the environment that the Colombian’s cooperation with Astana was coming to an end, hardly anyone believed that the charismatic Aleksandr Vinokourov would get rid of the leader before the contract expired. On December 12, however, information about the immediate termination of the contract between the Kazakh team and the Colombian highlander was released.

What’s more, the Astana team decided to issue a statement regarding the reasons for parting with the 28-year-old cyclist. In it, it was admitted that the great climber is directly related to Merina, which was the nail in the coffin for the cyclist. The silence of the courts could no longer protect him from the label of a cyclist involved in doping.

The Astana Qazaqstan Team has uncovered new facts pointing to a possible connection between Miguel Ángel López and Dr. Marcos Maynar Merina. As a result, the team had no choice but to terminate the contract with immediate effect due to its violation and failure to comply with the team’s internal rules

– we read in the statement.

Escape home. Lopez seeks refuge from WADA?

It was already known then that Lopez had excluded himself from cycling at the world level. First, although nothing was proven to him, no team dependent on millions of dollars received from sponsors was going to hire a cyclist who was a ticking time bomb, but also required a high contract. Secondly, many teams had already signed contracts with the maximum number of players allowed, which blocked any movement in the market. Thirdly – and most importantly – doping links are currently stigmatized in cycling.

“Superman” had little choice but to return home to Colombia to join Team Medellin. Perhaps there, in the city of Pablo Escobar, which for years was the world’s capital of drug trafficking, the career of the 28-year-old player will return to the right track.

Descending to the third, lowest professional division may be the last resort for Lopez. He will miss the routes of the most important races in the world, and his starting calendar will be based on races in South America. But the continental teams are not as much scrutinized by the UCI and WADA. Riders do not have to have biological passports, which could exclude many riders from target starts by e.g. failure to inform the team doctor about taking paracetamol for headache. In the races of the lowest categories, there are also fewer anti-doping tests, which is why the peloton has been mockingly said for years, e.g. about Portuguese people shining in the night.

Another Colombian, still without a team for the 2023 season, found out how fierce the fight against doping is. Nairo Quintana, an experienced climber and the best Colombian cyclist in the last decade, was disqualified from this year’s Tour de France for using tramadol. The same tramadol that peaked in popularity during the Qatar World Cup. The UCI decided that the WADA regulations are not sufficient and created a health protocol, according to which the use of agents such as tramadol is prohibited due to the protection of the health and life of the players.

Will it be a problem to return to the elite?

It seems that “Superman” will actually spend the 2023 season in South America, driving for the Medellin team. His further fate, however, is unknown. Perhaps within a year, the discussion of the Ilex operation will subside and the Colombian will return to favour. Perhaps he will be helped by the Spanish court, which will again not disclose the names of athletes involved in doping. Perhaps the competitor’s style will change and he will not be the hero of such situations as the one from the Spanish Vuelta 2021. Perhaps.

One thing is certain – the career of Miguel Angel Lopez, who in theory has even a decade of racing ahead of him, is at a turning point. And it is not only up to him whether he will be able to straighten it out in the future. Will a player who probably participated in doping and did not serve a penalty return to fight for the greatest successes? With Alejandro Valverde, that wasn’t a problem. What about Lopez?