The doping sanction that the UCI imposed on him this Thursday brought the career of Miguel Ángel ‘Supermán’ López to a screeching halt, a cyclist who knew how to reach the podium of two of the greats in world cycling but who, in recent years, had not been able to revalidate all the good things it showed in its beginnings.
He rode a bicycle from a very young age, to transport himself to the Indalecio Vásquez school, where he finished high school. He also helped his parents, who grew potatoes, with the work in the fields. He started a systems course at the Sena, but his love for cycling got the better of him.
Miguel Angel Lopez
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Acevedo took him to live in a country house he had in Sogamoso. His sister Monica went with him to accompany him and keep the house up to date. He joined the Lotería de Boyacá team.
How Superman’s nickname was born
He was on the verge of retiring from cycling in 2013, due to an injury to the ligaments in his right leg. The doctor Gustavo Castro treated him with therapies and, without needing to go to the operating room, López was ready to continue competing.
The Tour de L’Avenir, his rise to fame
He rose to fame in 2014, when he became the fifth Colombian cyclist to win the Tour de L’Avenir, after Alfonso Flórez (1980), Martín Ramírez (1985), Nairo Quintana (2010) and Esteban Chaves (2011). That performance took him to Europe: he signed with the Astana team.
Reception of Miguel Ángel López in the Boyacá Governorate after the victory of the Tour de L’Avenir.
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In 2021 he signed with Movistar, with whom he won the Vuelta a Andalucía, but the end of his relationship with this team was stormy: when he was fighting to get on the podium, he ended up getting off the bike in the penultimate stage, annoying, according to him, for not having collaboration from his colleagues.
He returned to Astana in 2022. He participated in the Giro d’Italia, from which he ended up abruptly retiring. In that race, according to the UCI, he tested positive for which he was now punished: the injury would have been caused by the use of menotropin. His last big one was the Vuelta a España in 2022, in which he finished fourth.
After a conflict with Astana, which separated him from his squad, López returned to the country and signed with Team Medellín, with whom he swept the Vuelta a Colombia, with nine stages won. But he had to face a series of surprise doping controls, even when he was on vacation, which generated the cyclist’s anger.
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