The doctor at the centre of the Spanish doping investigation “Operación Ilex”, Marcos Maynar, has explicitly denied ever giving banned substances to Colombian Miguel Ángel López.
The UCI provisionally suspended López in July after an investigation by the International Testing Agency (ITA), which administers all doping controls for the federation.
The ITA obtained the dossier from the Spanish Guardia Civil and Spanish Anti-Doping Organisation and used those files to determine López’s anti-doping rule violation.
Maynar is accused of distributing prohibited substances through a sports physiology clinic at the University of Extremadura. The investigation turned up links between Maynar and López, which led Astana Qazaqstan to first suspend, then reinstate, and then fire López in 2022.
Maynar previously asserted López’s innocence in January, saying, “I would put my hand in the fire that he has never used banned substances in his life” and said he only offered “nutritional support”.
In an interview with Mundo Ciclistico published today, Maynar said López insisted his advice include no doping substances.
“How am I going to send this man something and send it to him with the controls that are made at the Giro, on the Tour? Especially in Italy. It’s absurd,” Maynar said.
López has long asserted his innocence, saying his biological passport was clean.
Maynar also believes he will be found innocent.
“If I’ve made any mistakes, then mistakes have to be paid for. I’ll pay and recognize it. I don’t have a problem. But of course, with doping, I haven’t had any problems. And it will be demonstrated,” Maynar said.
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