by On December 12, 2022, Astana, the Kazakh cycling squad, announced that it had terminated the contract of Miguel Ángel López for alleged links to Marcos Maynar, a doctor investigated for the drug trafficking case in Spain.
Since then, the Colombian undertook a legal fight against that squad taking into account that he considered his departure unjustified. He advised that he would exercise all the legal actions that assist him in defense of his rights, for what he considered an abusive dismissal and without just cause.
´Supermán´, announced a few hours ago that the UCI ruled in his favor.
“Pending the resolution of the dispute that it maintains with the Astana team in the TAS for considering the unilateral breach of the contract illegal, the UCI has decided to block the bank guarantee of the Kazakh team in the amount of 1,700,000 $ for reasons logical in the cyclist’s claim and guarantee, in the case of obtaining the reason from the TAS, the payment of back wages and damages for possible breach of contract by the Astana Team ”, indicates a letter that he posted on his social networks, indicating that you want to make the status of your case known.
Miguel Ángel also announced that he does not rule out returning to Europe, although he remains focused on Team Medellín with which he won the Vuelta a San Juan, Tolima and became national time trial champion.
“López, who currently competes for Team Medellín-EPM and with whom he has a free contract, He does not rule out his return to a World Tour category team to compete again in high competition. His revenues are not in doubt among the big teams, but the dismissal of the Kazakh team in mid-December 2022 made it difficult for him to join another World Tour team ”, reports the 29-year-old cyclist’s statement.
He made it clear that he has a group of lawyers specialized in Sports Law to carry out a legal process after his dismissal from Astana before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) in Switzerland and spoke that it is not related to the case of Marcos Maynar.
“Marcos Maynar, investigated in the operation by the English courts for an alleged drug distribution plot dedicated to doping, loses strength by not appearing as investigated in the judicial proceedings. The one who is being investigated is Vicente Belda García, masseuse of the Astana team and supposed recipient of Dr. Maynar’s medicines.” and added that his biological passport is clean.
“He has passed the anti-doping biological passport controls with flying colors and has full authorization to compete in any team after his renewed UCI license for the year 2023. The cleanliness and transparency in the controls of the Colombian climber and the UCI response point to the prompt clarification of the facts and a close return of Miguel Angel “Superman” López to the highest competition in world cycling”, closed the official statement.
Miguel Ángel prepares for the time trial of the Pan American Games, the Tour of Turkey and the Tour of Greece.
