Cycling

Astana fires Lopez after new evidence surfaces in doping case

Astana Qazaqstan has terminated Miguel Angel Lopez’s contract after extra evidence is alleged to have surfaced relating to a doping investigation into the controversial Spanish physician Marco Maynar.

Astana suspended the Colombian in July for his alleged involvement in the Maynar case, however later lifted that suspension as a result of there was ‘no evidence’. Lopez then raced in the Vuelta a Espana for the Kazakh group and completed in fourth place.

Now the group has come throughout new evidence. “We have discovered new elements that indicate a connection between Miguel Angel Lopez and doctor Marcos Maynar,” they are saying in a press launch. “The team therefore had no choice but to terminate the contract.”

Lopez himself vehemently denies that he’s concerned in Maynar’s doubtful practices.

“There is no active investigation at this time,” he wrote final month. “My lawyers will take the necessary legal action if necessary.”

A particular division of the Spanish Guardia Civil is presently investigating the practices of the controversial physician Marco Maynar Mariño. Miguel Angel Lopez shouldn’t be the one recognized title related to Maynar. Former bike owner and group supervisor Vicente Belda is a vital suspect, as are his son and Ruben Bernal, former cyclists Angel Vazquez and Luis Vicente Otín and the group supervisor of the Portuguese Continental group Glassdrive-Q8-Anicolor, Rubén Tiago Alves Pereira.

Belda is likely one of the suspects in the so-called ILEX operation, an investigation right into a legal organisation based mostly in the Spanish province of Caceres. This organisation is alleged to be concerned in the unlawful manufacture and distribution of medicines inside and outdoors Spanish borders, but in addition in the commerce of prohibited substances inside sport.

The controversial physician Marcos Maynar, who has turn out to be discredited for alleged crimes of drug trafficking and cash laundering, is the primary linchpin in the net.

The Spanish every day ABC experiences that the ‘new elements’ that Astana speaks of are paperwork from the Guardia Civil. These paperwork present that Lopez was administered menotropin earlier than the beginning of the Giro in Hungary. Menotropin (additionally known as human menopausal gonadotropin or hMG) is a hormonally energetic remedy for the remedy of fertility disturbances. It can have a performance-enhancing impact, however in the case of Lopez, it will have been the reason for his early retirement from the Giro.

The Colombian deserted on day 4 because of a hip harm, each he and the group stated on the time, however the doping investigation allegedly acknowledged that Lopez would have suffered an irritation in the leg. This irritation can be the results of an injection of montropin. The paperwork from the Guarda Civil would show that the menotropin was despatched by Maynar from the University of Extremadura to Hungary, the place the Giro d’Italia began in 2022. According to the paperwork, the drug was obtained there by Vicente Belda García, Astana masseur and son of Vincente Belda, one of many most important suspects in the Maynar case. Both Beldas have been known as to testify on January 16.


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