{"id":442878,"date":"2026-02-24T11:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442878\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:19:12","slug":"why-on-earth-do-lactate-tests-with-a-suspended-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442878\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhy on earth do lactate tests with a suspended doctor?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2023, the father of UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG rider Marc Soler<\/a> was caught arranging a meeting with suspended doctor Pepe Mart\u00ed. Earlier this year, Soler\u2019s father was sanctioned for that. There is no proof that Soler himself was involved, but the contact with a banned doping<\/a> doctor does not look good. Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld<\/a> discussed the situation again on In de Waaier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to leaked police investigation files, Soler\u2019s father reportedly had an appointment with Mart\u00ed \u2014 the doctor who was banned due to the doping scandal linked to his time at US Postal. They were said to be waiting with lactate-testing equipment for a rider, and that rider was very likely Marc Soler.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there is no definitive proof that Soler was involved in this meeting because, most likely, Mart\u00ed and his father realised they were being watched. Soler would then have been informed to keep riding on, and it seems he slipped away,\u201d Zonneveld said.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"marcZonneveld: \u201cIt\u2019s almost certain that Soler worked with Mart\u00ed\u201d<\/p>\n

Soler\u2019s father \u2014 who claimed the lactate tests were for him \u2014 was handed an eighteen-month ban. Zonneveld finds that explanation hard to believe. \u201cOf course not \u2014 that man was sitting in his car without any sports clothes on, waiting.\u201d And in any case, he is no longer active as an athlete. \u201cHe\u2019s 50-plus and sometimes does a veterans triathlon, but now he\u2019s not even allowed to do that anymore,\u201d Zonneveld laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, it\u2019s almost certain that Marc Soler worked with Mart\u00ed \u2014 the question is whether it can also be proven,\u201d Zonneveld added. The analyst is therefore suspicious of the Spaniard when it comes to possible doping use. \u201cWhy on earth would you work with a suspended doctor for lactate tests? That\u2019s something so simple you can almost do it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"marc-soler\"\/What can Spanish police do with the Soler case?<\/p>\n

That Soler is linked to the story seems hard to dispute, but after three years it may be impossible for anti-doping authorities and Spanish justice to find definitive proof. \u201cAnd that frustrates, among others, the Spanish police \u2014 they find it annoying that nothing can be done with it,\u201d the Dutch analyst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUndoubtedly, the case will be followed up, because the suspension of Soler\u2019s father only came out last week,\u201d Zonneveld continued. For now, the Spanish climber is still racing as normal. He recently won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Murcia and initially appeared to have taken overall victory as well \u2014 but that result was later stripped <\/a>after too much of the course had been removed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2023, the father of UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG rider Marc Soler was caught arranging a meeting with suspended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,105193,156336,101,116856,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-442878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-doping","10":"tag-marc-soler","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-thijs-zonneveld","13":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}