Marcos Maynar talks about Gurpegi and Sabino Padilla: "While he was Induráin's doctor he was a saint, because here in Spain idols cannot be touched"

One of the most mediatic doping cases in Spain in the 20th century is that of the former Athletic de Bilbao player Carlos Gurpegi, in which Marcos Maynar was somewhat implicated along with Dr. Sabino Padilla.

Maynar says in his interview in El contraanálisis that the player at no time doped and regrets the treatment suffered by his colleague Padilla, comparing it with the good treatment he had had when he was Miguel Indurain's doctor. "In this country, when they put the cross on you, it is what it is. In the two cases in which I have been judged, I have been declared innocent".

"Gurpegi's problem remained unsolved because the ordinary justice judge washed his hands like Pontius Pilate. In Gurpegi's case they went after Sabino Padilla, who was Miguel Indurain's doctor. While he was Induráin's doctor he was a saint, because here in Spain idols cannot be touched."

"When he was at Athletic Bilbao they already started to tickle him. And Gurpegi, I tell you, is a person who produces nandrolone naturally. There were many anomalies. He underwent genetic studies that proved his anomaly. The Gurpegi thing is better left untouched because it has been a great embarrassment for the player who did not deserve it and for Sabino Padilla who did not deserve it either," he concluded.

Marcos Maynar was sanctioned 10 years by the Portuguese Cycling Federation after the death of Portuguese cyclist Bruno Neves, although he was absolved by the Portuguese justice system of any relation to the death or to a doping plot in the LA-MMS team.

On this subject, which has always haunted him, the doctor who is currently on trial for Operation Ilex, commented the following to Javier Ramirez in El Contraanálisis:

"In a race in Portugal in which there were no doctors, this boy fell and his death was due to asphyxia and not a myocardial infarction. I told the president that he was to blame for his death because if there had been doctors at the race they would have attended him correctly and the rider would have lived. And that is what pisses me off the most".

"I was not the head of Maia's (the team Neves raced for, ed.) medical services. I saw the Maia riders and advised them in some races. You can imagine how hard it was for me to be blamed for the death of a person, to be blamed that I could have done something. For God's sake, that's outrageous," he concluded.

Article written by Juan Larra.