“I apologize”, Miguel Ángel López assured about his surprising abandonment on stage 20 of La Vuelta, in which he got off the bike without any physical problem. The Colombian assured that the reason for his withdrawal was that he gave up “fight a battle that was lost”. Superman, who left Sanxenxo from third place overall, was surprised by the attack by Ineos and Bahrain, and was cut off in a rear group while the formation of his rival Jack Haig opened a gap. In addition, the Colombian, in the microphones of the SER, assured that he will not seek an exit from the Spanish team: “I don’t know how the team’s internal politics are going. I have a contract.”, said about the two-year deal he signed before La Vuelta.
With approximately 20 km to go, and with the podium lost, López decided to abandon: “As most have seen, the moment of the cut-off has been an uncomfortable situation, difficult to resolve. We have seen ourselves in a difficult moment and the best ones have gone ahead of us; Bahrain have played their cards well, and it is difficult to cover such a gap, even if it is small, at this point in the Vuelta. There is a lot of fatigue, a lot of level and obviously no one was going to help close that small gap at that time. We take time to react. There are many factors and, in the end, it’s a shame that we have to finish La Vuelta this way. “
For all this, the Colombian apologized: “I want to apologize to my colleagues. There were only a few left, there were five of us in La Vuelta and to work every day we had three, and they leave their skin day by day, they give their all, their 100%. It was a bit complicated, but in the end it happened like this. I gave up fighting for a battle that was practically lost. I just want to tell the fans, the sponsors, the entire La Vuelta organization… apologize for what is happening and how this has gone today ”.