The UCI announced today that it has notified Miguel Angel Lopez of a "possible anti-doping rule violation (ADRV)" and imposed a provisional race suspension.

The action follows an investigation conducted by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the independent agency responsible for anti-doping control and investigation for the UCI and other Olympic sports. The inspection agency obtained evidence from Operacion Ilex conducted by the Spanish Civil Guard and the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency (CELAD).

According to a UCI press release, Lopez's provisional suspension was due to a possible ADRV for "use and possession of prohibited substances in the weeks prior to the 2022 Giro d'Italia."

Lopez was associated with Operacion Ilex because of his ties to Marcos Maynal, the doctor who was at the center of the Spanish investigation.

Maynal was arrested on May 11, the day after Lopez abandoned the Giro d'Italia due to a foot injury. Maynal was charged with crimes against public health, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

News of the arrest led Astana to suspend Lopez on July 22, 2022, "until all the circumstances of the case are clarified."

Lopez maintained his innocence, denying at the time through his attorney that he had "no connection or participation in any criminal activity related to the distribution of unapproved drugs or other products mentioned in the news."

The team later reinstated Lopez, but terminated his contract in December after seeing evidence that Lopez "was likely involved with Dr. Marcos Maynar."

Lopez was not suspended by the UCI at that time and signed with Medellín-EPM.

At the Vuelta a San Juan in January, which Lopez won with his new team, he reiterated that he did not dope and said his biological passport was clean.

He took Astana to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for wrongful dismissal.

Maynar, a professor at the Faculty of Sports Sciences of the University of Extremadura, has been implicated in several doping investigations in the past; in 2004, he was accused of selling steroids over the Internet, but escaped punishment by claiming it was for medical research.

In 2009, the Portuguese Cycling Federation suspended Maynar for 10 years, mainly for providing banned drugs while he was team doctor for the Portuguese team LA-MSS.

In January of this year, Maynar vouched for Lopez, but admitted to their relationship, saying he only provided nutritional advice and nothing more.

"I wouldn't stick my hand in the fire with any other athlete, but I would stick my hand in the fire with this guy [Lopez] who has never used a banned substance in his life."

His advice, however, included recommending the use of Actovegin. Actovegin is a controversial substance made from calf's blood and allegedly used by athletes, including Lance Armstrong, in the early 2000s to improve performance.

Although not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, actovegin can be administered orally, but may fall under the UCI's no-needle policy, which requires a physician's permission for injection.

Maynor said that Actovegin pills are "like black pudding in a pill" and have been used "without health problems" by people with heart disease and "cause less suffering of the heart muscle during the effort." It is not a substance on the doping list, so it is not doping."

The drug is not a "substance that is not on the doping list, so it is not doping.

Also involved in the investigation were Vicente Verda (former racer and manager of the Kelme team, involved in the 2006 Operacion Puerto) and his son, also Vicente Verda, an Astana soigneur who was fired by the team.

Just as in Operacion Puerto, Eufemiano Fuentes was found to have provided training plans and doping schedules to professional athletes for compensation, a similar organization was uncovered in Operacion Ilex, with six people under investigation.

According to a statement from Gardia Civil, the operation brought in professional sports clients "offering the services of renowned sports doctors." These services included the creation of training plans and nutritional programs, as well as the ingestion of drugs and banned substances in sports."

The specialist, whose name is not revealed but is understood to be Maynar, has a doctorate in physiology, performs physiological tests at the University of Extremadura, and is then given a training plan that allegedly includes the intake of banned drugs, for a fee of up to 3,000 euros per season.

After more than a year of investigation, three individuals were identified in Guipuzcoa, Basque Country, Portugal, and Castellón, eastern Valencia, who distributed the substances supplied to players and clients.

According to the EFE news agency, Maynar defended himself, saying. 'But it is unacceptable that other people are making life impossible and they will be shown to have nothing to do with it.'

"We believe that everything that has been done is within the law, that it is for the purpose of what a university should be, which is to open our knowledge and activities to society, and that is what we have tried to do, and that many people in Extremadura have I believe that they have benefited from all that we have done."