Miguel Ángel López (cyclist)

Following his success in 2014, López was granted a contract with Astana, a UCI WorldTeam. His success in stage races continued, finishing 4th overall and winning a stage at the Vuelta a Burgos and 7th overall in the Tour de Suisse.

2016 was López's breakthrough season. He finished 4th in the Tour de San Luis, 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, an eight-day race held in Malaysia. The biggest win yet of his career came at the Tour de Suisse, where he won the general classification ahead of Ion Izagirre and Warren Barguil. Following these successes, López was one of five riders selected to represent Colombia in the road race at the Olympics. López started his first grand tour at the Vuelta a España[12] where he was the chosen team leader but he was forced to abandon the race on Stage 6 following a crash on Stage 3.[13]

López was named on the start list for the Vuelta a España in a strong Astana line-up alongside former race winner Fabio Aru. On Stage 11, he took his first grand tour stage victory, distancing himself from race favourites Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Wilco Kelderman in the last 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) of the first-category climb up to the Calar Alto Observatory.[10] 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 on the first especial category climb of the race.[14] 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.[15]

In May 2018, he was named in the startlist for the Giro d'Italia;[16] he finished in third place overall, behind Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin. He also made the podium in the Vuelta a España, finishing third overall behind Simon Yates and Enric Mas.[17]

López at the 2019 Giro d'Italia

López won stage 4 and the general classification in March's Volta a Catalunya.[18] López competed in the Giro d'Italia, finishing seventh overall and winning the young rider classification for a second time in a row. During stage 20 of the race, López was brought down in an incident with a fan about 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) 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 (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.[19] One day later, after the Giro had ended, the UCI announced that they were investigating the lack of a penalty for his behaviour.[20]

In August 2020, he was named in the startlist for the Tour de France.[21] López won stage 17, the queen stage, finishing atop the Col de la Loze.[22] Near the end of the stage and at the steepest part of the climb – reaching gradients of up to 24% – López and Sepp Kuss caught the final breakaway rider Richard Carapaz. Kuss waited up for his leader Primož Roglič and López soloed to victory ahead of him and Tadej Pogačar, and moved into third in the general classification – a position that he was hoping to keep for the rest of the race.[23] 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.[24]

After six years with Astana, López signed a one-year contract with the Movistar Team, for the 2021 season.[25] In August, the Movistar Team extended his contract to the end of 2023.[26] During the Vuelta a España he finished second of the overall contenders in the first summit finish, on the third stage, at Picón Blanco.[27] He ran as high as third overall in the first half of the race, trailing Primož Roglič, and teammate Enric Mas. 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 of Asturias.[28] López attacked with 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) remaining and chased down the sole leader David de la Cruz; 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.[29] López later apologised for the manner of his withdrawal,[30] but two weeks later, López and Movistar Team agreed to a mutual termination of his contract as at the end of the month.[31] He later described Mas as a "selfish person" and the team atmosphere was "always very tense".[32] The incident featured as part of the third season of The Least Expected Day, a documentary series about the team.[33]

In October 2021, López signed a two-year contract with the Astana–Premier Tech team, later renamed Astana Qazaqstan Team, from the 2022 season.[34] He finished third overall at the Vuelta a Andalucía,[35] and took his first victory of the season at the Tour of the Alps, winning the penultimate stage that finished at the Grossglockner.[36] He was part of the Astana Qazaqstan Team at the Giro d'Italia, but withdrew from the race on its first Italian stage, stage four.[37]

As the end of the 2022 Tour de France neared Lopez, who was not in the race that year, was stopped by police at a Madrid 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 Spanish professor he has had contact with.[38] Initial reports that López himself was being investigated were denied by Spain's Guardia Civil police force.[39] As of 12 December, 2022 López's contract with Team Astana Qazaqstan was terminated.[40]