Colombian rider Lopez provisionally suspended

Colombian rider Miguel Angel Lopez has been provisionally suspended amid a doping probe, the sport's UCI governing body said on Tuesday.

Lopez is being investigated "for use and possession of a prohibited substance in the weeks preceding the 2022 Giro d'Italia", the UCI said of its decision to "provisionally suspend the rider pending the final decision".

Lopez, 29, third in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta in 2018, had been due to take part in the world cycling championships in Glasgow from August 3-13.

The UCI said the decision was taken after evidence obtained from police in Spain and the Spanish National Anti-Doping Organisation.

Last December, Lopez was fired by the Astana team, who claim he has links to a Spanish doctor at the heart of a doping investigation.

He had already been provisionally suspended for a week by his team after being arrested at Madrid airport the previous July.

The Colombian – winner of the Tour of Switzerland in 2016 and the Tour of Catalonia in 2019 – denies any connection to doping.

Since the start of 2023, he has been competing for third division Team Medellin-EPM, winning the Tour de San Juan in Argentina and Tour de Colombia, where he won nine of the ten stages.

His team said they respected the UCI's decision, withdrawing Lopez from the Tour of Panama.

Their statement went on to point out the rider "had undergone anti-doping controls" since he joined them and each one had come back negative.