Miguel Ángel López Moreno (born February 4, 1994) is a Colombian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team . In 2016, López won his first World Tour stage race at the

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

and achieved his maiden

grand tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

stage victory the following season on Stage 11 of the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...

, followed by another victory on Stage 15. He was the overall winner of the

Tour Colombia The Tour Colombia, called earlier Colombia Oro y Paz is a stage professional cycling race held annually in Colombia since 2018. It is part of UCI America Tour in category 2.1. Winners See also * Vuelta a Colombia * Vuelta a Colombia Femeni ...

and the

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of th ...

in 2019. In 2020, he won the "Queen" stage of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

Career

López was born in

Pesca Pesca is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the Sugamuxi Province, a subregion of Boyacá. The town is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes at altitudes between and . Pesca is west from t ...

. López celebrated success in 2014, winning multiple stage races while still an amateur. In August he won the

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents ...

, the most prestigious under 23 cycling race. López also won the U23 version of the

Vuelta a Colombia The Vuelta a Colombia (Spanish for ''Tour of Colombia'') is an annual cycling road race, run over many stages throughout different regions in Colombia and sometimes Venezuela and Ecuador during the first days of August. It is organized by the ...

Astana (2015–20)

2015

Following his success in 2014, López was granted a contract with , a

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

. His success in stage races continued, finishing 4th overall and winning a stage at the

Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In 2019, a multi-day wo ...

and 7th overall in the

2016

2016 was López's breakthrough season. He finished 4th in the

Tour de San Luis The Tour de San Luis was a road cycling race that was held in San Luis Province, Argentina from 2007 to 2016. The race consisted of a competition over an individual time trial, and six stages. The competition carried a UCI rating of 2.1, and i ...

, the first race of his season, winning Stage 6 and taking the young rider classification. One month later, López finished third and won a stage at the

Tour de Langkawi The Tour de Langkawi is a multiple stage bicycle race held in Malaysia. It is named after the archipelago Langkawi, where the first edition started and finished. The race has been held annually since 1996, primarily in February. It usually con ...

, an eight-day race held in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The biggest win yet of his career came at the

, where he won the general classification ahead of

Ion Izagirre Ion Izagirre Insausti (born 4 February 1989) is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer and cyclo-cross rider from the Basque Country, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is sometimes referred to as Jon Izagirre, to retain the correct ...

and

Warren Barguil Warren Barguil (; born 28 October 1991) is a French cyclist, who rides for UCI ProTeam . He is best known for winning two mountain stages and the mountains classification of the 2017 Tour de France. Career Early career Born in Hennebont, Britta ...

. Following these successes, López was one of five riders selected to represent

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

in the road race at the Olympics. López started his first grand tour at the

where he was the chosen team leader but he was forced to abandon the race on Stage 6 following a crash on Stage 3.

2017

López was named on the start list for the

in a strong Astana line-up alongside former race winner

Fabio Aru , birth_date = , birth_place = San Gavino Monreale, Sardinia, Italy , height = , weight = , currentteam = Retired , discipline = Road , role = Rider , ridertype = Climber , amateuryears1 = 2009–2012 , amateurteam1 = Palazzago , am ...

. On Stage 11, he took his first grand tour stage victory, distancing himself from race favourites

Chris Froome Christopher Clive Froome ɹɪs fɹuːm (born 20 May 1985) is a Kenyan/British Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He has won seven Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de ...

Vincenzo Nibali ), The Nibbler , birth_date = , birth_place = Messina, Sicily, Italy , height = , weight = , currentteam = , discipline = Road , role = Rider , ridertype = Climber , proyears1 = 2005 , proteam1 = , proyears2 = 2006–2012 , protea ...

and

Wilco Kelderman Wilco Kelderman (born 25 March 1991) is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Professional career Born in Amersfoort, Kelderman finished in seventh position in the general classification of the 2014 Giro d'Italia ...

in the last of the first-category climb up to the

Calar Alto Observatory The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano en Andalucía or "Spanish Astronomical Centre in Andalusia") is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabres ra ...

. López's fine form in the mountains continued on Stage 14 to Sierra de la Pandera where he once again distanced the race leaders to finish second to

Rafał Majka Rafał Majka (Polish pronunciation: ; born 12 September 1989) is a Polish professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is known as a strong climber, and rose to prominence at the 2013 Giro d'Italia, where he finis ...

on the first ''especial'' category climb of the race. He went on to win the following Stage 15 after a solo escape on the summit finish, yet again distancing the race favorites for his second Vuelta stage victory.

2018

In May 2018, he was named in the startlist for the Giro d'Italia; he finished in third place overall, behind

and

Tom Dumoulin Tom Dumoulin (; born 11 November 1990) is a retired Dutch professional road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI WorldTeam . He has won nine stages across the three Grand Tours, five medals in three different World Championships and two Olympic s ...

. He also made the podium in the

, finishing third overall behind Simon Yates and

Enric Mas Enric Mas Nicolau () (born 7 January 1995) is a Spanish racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is a climber, and has finished in top 10 in world tour stage races, and has also won a stage at the Tour of the Basque Country. Career Mas wa ...

2019

López won stage 4 and the general classification in March's

. López competed in the Giro d'Italia, finishing seventh overall and winning the

young rider classification Young rider classification (french: classement général des jeunes) is a cycling jersey competition in multi-day stage race events, such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and many others, which awards the current leader by overall time for ride ...

for a second time in a row. During stage 20 of the race, López was brought down in an incident with a fan about from the finish. He proceeded to hit the spectator four times, including knocking the hat off his head. While the regulations of the sport's governing body, the

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues racing ...

(UCI), call for disqualification of a rider who assaults someone during a race, the race jury decided against applying a punishment to López. He later apologised for the incident, but stated that riders should receive more respect from the crowd. One day later, after the Giro had ended, the UCI announced that they were investigating the lack of a penalty for his behaviour.

2020

In August 2020, he was named in the startlist for the

. López won stage 17, the queen stage, finishing atop the

Col de la Loze The Col de la Loze is a mountain pass in the French Alps, with an elevation of . A path up the mountain was opened in May 2019, and is the seventh-highest mountain pass in France. The ascent featured in the 2020 Tour de France, as well as in th ...

. Near the end of the stage and at the steepest part of the climb – reaching gradients of up to 24% – López and

Sepp Kuss Sepp Kuss (born September 13, 1994) is an American professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Kuss started out in mountain bike racing as a junior and as a student at the University of Colorado won two races at the Colle ...

caught the final breakaway rider

Richard Carapaz Richard Antonio Carapaz Montenegro (born 29 May 1993) is an Ecuadorian professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Carapaz won the 2019 Giro d'Italia, becoming the first Ecuadorian rider to win the race. In July 2021 ...

. Kuss waited up for his leader

Primož Roglič Primož Roglič (; born 29 October 1989) is a Slovenian racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He started as a ski jumper and switched to cycling several years after an accident suffered at Planica. At the 2017 Tour de France, Roglič bec ...

and López soloed to victory ahead of him and

Tadej Pogačar Tadej Pogačar (; born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenian cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He won the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Tour de France, winning three different jerseys during each Tour, a feat unseen in nearly four deca ...

, and moved into third in the general classification – a position that he was hoping to keep for the rest of the race. He held that position until the penultimate day, when he lost three or more minutes to the three riders immediately behind him in the overall standings, dropping to a final position of sixth.

Movistar Team

After six years with , López signed a one-year contract with the , for the 2021 season. In August, the extended his contract to the end of 2023. During the

he finished second of the overall contenders in the first summit finish, on the third stage, at Picón Blanco. He ran as high as third overall in the first half of the race, trailing

, and teammate

. He once again won the queen stage of a Grand Tour, winning the eighteenth stage that finished at El Gamoniteiru, the highest mountain in the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in nor ...

. López attacked with remaining and chased down the sole leader

David de la Cruz David de la Cruz Melgarejo (born 6 May 1989) is a Spanish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career De la Cruz was born in Sabadell. On 28 August 2016, de la Cruz scored the biggest win of his career to that point, when he won stag ...

; he ultimately won the stage by fourteen seconds from Roglič. During the penultimate stage, he missed a move among the other general classification contenders and found himself stuck in a group that had fallen behind. López abandoned the race a few kilometres later despite several team members encouraging him to continue. López later apologised for the manner of his withdrawal, but two weeks later, López and agreed to a mutual termination of his contract as at the end of the month. He later described Mas as a "selfish person" and the team atmosphere was "always very tense". The incident featured as part of the third season of '' The Least Expected Day'', a documentary series about the team.

Return to Astana

In October 2021, López signed a two-year contract with the team, later renamed , from the 2022 season. He finished third overall at the

Vuelta a Andalucía The Vuelta a Andalucía (Tour of Andalusia) or Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) is a regional Spanish road bicycle race first held in 1925. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became a part of the new UCI P ...

, and took his first victory of the season at the

Tour of the Alps The Tour of the Alps is an annual professional cycling stage race in Italy and Austria. First held in 1962, it was named Giro del Trentino ( en, Tour of Trentino) until 2016, and run over four stages in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region o ...

, winning the penultimate stage that finished at the

Grossglockner The Grossglockner (german: Großglockner ; or just ''Glockner'') is, at 3,798 metres above the Adriatic (12,461 ft), the highest mountain in Austria and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. It is part of the larger Glock ...

. He was part of the at the Giro d'Italia, but withdrew from the race on its first Italian stage, stage four. As the end of the

2022 Tour de France The 2022 Tour de France was the 109th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Copenhagen, Denmark on 1 July 2022 and ended with the final stage on the Champs-Élysées, Paris on 24 July 2022. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard () won the general clas ...

neared Lopez, who was not in the race this year, was stopped by police at a

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

airport and questioned in a non blood doping drug trafficking investigation. Team Astana Qazaqstan issued a very surprised tweet on July 22, 04:02 that Lopez had been suspended by the team until a clarification was made regarding a Columbian Professor he has had contact with. Initial reports that López himself was being investigated were denied by Spain's Guardia Civil police force. As of 12 December, 2022 López's contract with Team Astana Qazaqstan was terminated.https://www.astana-qazaqstan.com/statement-on-miguel-angel-lopez-2/

Major results

;2014 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 6 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Vuelta de la Juventud de Colombia The Vuelta de la Juventud de Colombia is a road cycling race held annually since 1968 throughout Colombia. It is considered to be the under-23 version of the Vuelta a Colombia. Many successful professional cyclists won the race early in their caree ...

::1st Stage 4 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásica de Samacá ::1st Stages 1 & 2 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásica Aguazul ::1st Stages 1 & 2 : 1st Stage 1 Clásica Fusagasugá : 4th

Time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

, National Under-23 Road Championships ;2015 : 4th Overall

::1st

Young rider classification ::1st Stages 2 ( TTT) & 4 : 7th Overall

;2016 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

: 1st

Milano–Torino Milano–Torino is a semi classic European single day cycling race, between the northern Italian cities of Milan and Turin over a distance of 199 kilometres. The event was first run in 1876 making it the oldest classic race in the world. The ev ...

: 3rd Overall

::1st Stage 4 : 4th

, National Road Championships : 4th Overall

::1st

Young rider classification ::1st Stage 6 ;2017 : 2nd Overall

Tour of Austria The Tour of Austria (german: Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) is a stage cycling race held in Austria. From 1949 to 1995 it was a race for amateur cyclists, turning into a professional event in 1996. In 2005 and 2006 it was organised as a 2 ...

::1st Stage 4 : 4th Overall

::1st Stage 5 : 8th Overall

::1st

Young rider classification Young rider classification (french: classement général des jeunes) is a cycling jersey competition in multi-day stage race events, such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and many others, which awards the current leader by overall time for ride ...

::1st Stages 11 & 15 ;2018 : 2nd Overall

::1st

Points classification ::1st Stage 3 : 2nd Overall

Tour of Oman The Tour of Oman is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Oman since 2010 as part of the UCI Asia Tour. It was scheduled to become part of the new UCI ProSeries in 2020, but both the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled d ...

::1st

Young rider classification ::1st Stage 5 : 2nd

: 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia ::1st Jersey white

: 3rd Overall

Abu Dhabi Tour The Abu Dhabi Tour was a men's cycling stage race that took place in the United Arab Emirates, held annually between 2015 and 2018. In 2019 The Abu Dhabi Tour merged with the Dubai Tour to become the UAE Tour. History When inaugurated, it was pa ...

::1st

Young rider classification : 3rd Overall

::1st Stage 2 ;2019 : 1st MaillotVolta

Overall

::1st

Young rider classification ::1st Stage 4 : 1st Jersey orange

Overall

::1st

Young rider classification : 2nd

, National Road Championships : 5th Overall

::1st Stage 1 ( TTT) :: Jersey yellow number

Combativity award Stage 1 & Overall ::Held Jersey red

after Stages 1, 5 & 7 ::Held Jersey white

after Stages 1–12 & 18–19 : 7th Overall Giro d'Italia ::1st Jersey white

;2020 : 3rd Overall

Volta ao Algarve The Volta ao Algarve (Portuguese; en, Tour of the Algarve) is a road bicycle racing stage race held annually in the Algarve, Portugal. Since 2017, it has been organised as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became part of the new UCI P ...

::1st Stage 4 : 5th Overall

Critérium du Dauphiné The Critérium du Dauphiné, before 2010 known as the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, is an annual cycling road race in the Dauphiné region in the southeast of France. The race is run over eight days during the first half of June. It is part ...

: 6th Overall

::1st Stage 17 ;2021 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stage 3 : 1st

Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge The Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge is a professional cycle road race first held in 2019, which takes place between Vaison-la-Romaine and Mont Ventoux. The event was classified by the UCI as category 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour from 2019 ...

: 1st Stage 18

: 6th Overall

;2022 : 1st Stage 4

: 3rd Overall

::1st

Mountains classification : 3rd Overall

: 4th Overall

: 4th

Giro del Veneto The Giro del Veneto is a classic cycle races, semi classic European Road bicycle racing, bicycle race held in the region of Veneto, Italy. The race is a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2012 the race merged with another Italian classic, Coppa ...

General classification results timeline

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Miguel Angel 1994 births Living people Colombian male cyclists Olympic cyclists of Colombia Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Colombian Vuelta a España stage winners Colombian Tour de France stage winners Sportspeople from Boyacá Department 21st-century Colombian people