Former climbing star Miguel Ángel López unsuccessful in latest bid to fight four year sanction and huge fine.
Miguel Ángel López Moreno riding the Coppa Bernocchi race in 2022 (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images) (Photo: Dario Belingheri)
Updated September 19, 2026 02:47PM
Former Grand Tour podium finisher Miguel Ángel López has failed in a bid to overturn a four-year doping ban, with his latest legal attempt denied by Swiss courts.
The Colombian climbing star, who was nicknamed Superman due to his attacking flair, was found guilty by the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal in May 2024 relating to possession and use of banned substance Menotropin two years earlier.
The offense occurred while he was riding the 2022 Giro d’Italia with Astana-Qazaqstan.
Menotropin is a fertility drug which has been abused by male athletes to increase testosterone production.
Ángel López was handed a backdated four year ban, had over a year’s worth of results stripped from him and was given a fine equaling 70% of his 2022 income.
He denied ever using the drug and launched an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ultimately upheld the ban in May 2025.
He then appealed that verdict to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which has now ruled against him.
Cycling’s governing body the UCI welcomed the decision on Saturday. “The judgment confirms that the sanctions provided for under the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, including financial sanctions, pursue a legitimate objective in the interests of cycling and may be proportionate even when the amount involved is significant,” it said in a statement.
The UCI said that case is “now definitively closed.”
Busted for doping, robbed by bandits
Miguel Ángel López (r) and Remco Evenepoel at the 2022 Vuelta (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Ángel López was once the budding new star of Colombian cycling, and seen as a potential successor to Nairo Quintana. He turned pro with Astana in 2015 and won the Tour de Suisse and Milan-Turin the following season.
He took two stages of the Vuelta a España in 2017 and the following year finished third in both that event plus the Giro d’Italia.
A stage win in the 2020 Tour prefaced a move to the Movistar Team, but he failed to shine there, quitting the Vuelta on stage 20 while sitting third overall.
He returned to Astana in 2022 and lined out in the Giro, but was a DNF on stage 4.
The doping charges against him relate to that period and to the interception of a parcel containing Menotropin that was allegedly addressed to him.
Evidence was provided to the International Testing Agency (ITA) by the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Spanish Anti-Doping Organization (CELAD).
That evidence was part of Operation “Ilex,” an investigation into Spanish doctor Marcos Maynar concerning the alleged trafficking of unauthorized medicines that could pose a risk to public health.
As noted Saturday by the UCI in its statement, Ángel López’ appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal claimed that on the CELAD Evidence and imposing a significant fine violated procedural and substantive guarantees under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Federal Tribunal rejected this in a judgement dated August 19. It also found that the fine was compatible with substantive public policy and the guarantees of the ECHR.
The UCI greeted the decision Saturday. It said that it reiterates “its determination to protect the integrity of cycling and to ensure fair competition.”
As for Ángel López, the decision is the latest blow in a turbulent few years. In addition to his doping sanctions and battles, he was robbed at gunpoint at his home in Colombia in 2023 and held for three hours by bandits.
Now 32 and unlikely to find a pro team when his ban ends next July, it’s been a long comedown from his Superman days.