The doping case involving Miguel Ángel López has been "definitively closed", according to the UCI, after the Colombian rider lost out in his latest – and last – avenue of appeal.
López, a former stage winner at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, was handed a four-year ban by the UCI in 2024 for 'use and possession' of the prohibited substance Menotropin.
Having unsuccessfully appealed the ban before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), López then appealed against that CAS ruling before the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which has jurisdiction over the Switzerland-based CAS.
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"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that the Swiss Federal Tribunal has dismissed the appeal filed by Colombian rider Miguel Ángel López Moreno against the decision issued by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 7 May 2025," read a statement from the UCI on Saturday.
"The CAS decision upheld the ruling of the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal (UCI ADT), which had found Mr López guilty of using and possessing a prohibited substance concomitantly with the 2022 Giro d’Italia.
"The case is now definitively closed."
The CAS is usually considered the final route of appeal but López took his case one step further than most and would now appear to have run out of options. He remains banned through 24 July 2027.
López was handed the ban in 2024 but it was backdated to July 25, 2023. At that time, he had already left the WorldTour cycling scene and returned to racing in Colombia – with great success – after his Astana team terminated his contract towards the end of 2022 over his links to the Spanish doctor Marcos Maynar. López denied wrongdoing at this time and described his dismissal as "abusive termination without just cause".
Maynar was at the centre of Operación Ilex, an investigation between the Spanish police and the Spanish anti-doping agency. Evidence from that case was used to charge López with an anti-doping rule violation, with the UCI detailing "the interception of a parcel containing Menotropin that was addressed to Mr López concomitantly with the 2022 Giro d’Italia".
López has always maintained his innocence, and of the UCI's ban he said: "The offence does not exist, and the ban is unjustified."
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