Operation Ilex - Interview with Marcos Maynar: "I told them that with me they would not have doping problems"

Marcos Maynar, accused of an alleged crime against public health and administration of doping substances in the framework of Operation Ilex, has been interviewed by Javier Ramirez in El Contraanálisis. In this framework are involved big names in the world of cycling as Miguel Angel Lopez or Vicente Belda.

A very self-confident Maynar speaks for the first time about the case denying any involvement with doping and gives his opinion about the recent leak of a document that linked him to some riders of the Caja Rural team, something he does not deny, although as we say throughout the conversation he denies his involvement during his career with doping despite the fact that he was suspended 10 years for a doping case in Portugal.

In the conversation he also talks about Enric Mas and his trainers, defends Miguel Angel Lopez to the hilt, names Tadej Pogacar and Juan Ayuso to explain how training methods have changed and denies contacts with Caja Rural - Seguros RGA manager Juanma Hernandez.

"There are wars between the [pro] continental teams, there are many interests in those teams to race the Vuelta a España and a team like Euskaltel Euskadi has been left out, so they probably, or if it's not them someone very close or other teams, will have released some information to create a stain for these people so they don't take them (to La Vuelta, ed.) other years based on something that has neither head nor tail."

"The information as they tell it, who has described it, specifically your colleagues in the newspaper Marca, I probably already announced that maybe they will take a lawsuit because they have lied in a disproportionate way, they speak of a safe house and everything, I have not been to the Basque Country for many years. They have to use lies. According to what I read what was sent in the middle of the Vuelta a Espana was a communiqué, a series of sheets, they sent information that they took from the summary of the case and they put in their own way and in the way they wanted what they wanted to try to try to create a plot. It's like if I cut and paste and link a conversation from two years ago with one from two months ago, saying that Caja Rural was involved in doping causes".

"What we had was a group of riders to whom we gave medical and training support. We didn't want to become millionaires. We charged very little compared to other levels. Our intention was to help those who wanted to count on our collaboration."

"Right now one of the big problems that is emerging in cycling, and it has been commented by the Jumbo-Visma rider (Nathan van Hooydonck) recently retired because of a problem with a myocardial issue at a very young age. We would like to think that the well thought ones would be due as they say to the very strong systems they use, that is, that cycling had always been background work and now they want to do an inverted pyramid work. That is, instead of working with a lot of background, they work with a lot of intensity. They take it for granted that they have the background and work with a lot of intensity and a lot of mileage at the same time".

"This is a revolution that is leading to too young riders pushed to the limit, what van Hooydonck says is very serious, we have cases like Ayuso or Pogacar, it is starting to play from very early. The cyclist is not a machine, now they want to base everything on physical parameters, on power, the human being has other things that we cannot ignore. They are training machines and not human beings".

"We think that you can continue to enjoy cycling at the highest level by working without using doping at all, the only thing that has motivated me is to help these athletes by training them with the traditional system".

WHY DO SOME CYCLISTS GO TO EXPERTS OUTSIDE THEIR TEAMS? WHY DO SOME CYCLISTS GO TO EXPERTS OUTSIDE THEIR TEAMS? WHY DO SOME CYCLISTS GO TO EXTERNAL EXPERTS?

"Many of the team professionals have no cycling experience. Top-level cycling is a very special world. Nowadays any nutritionist will put you on one of those ideal and wonderful diets based on theory. I can tell you that some of the riders I worked with were overtrained and had to be reversed to get the body right."

"Yes, but I'm not going to say which teams, it's part of my professional secret. Only Caja Rural and Miguel Ángel López have been made public".

"What for, to harm them? If what I am trying to do is to help them and now it turns out that because of me they are being harmed because they have taken everything out of proportion. Who is going to want to work with me, I am not interested in working, I have my life solved. In the world of cycling there have always been many liars. Among the teams themselves they are killing each other.

"In the high-level world (he gives the example of triathlon, ed.), where there is money, where there are people who train like hell, there are some who consider that circumstance. There will be teams that, in order to maintain millionaire sponsors, will demand much more from the riders and they will have to transgress the rules to try to give more to those teams".

"The Caja Rural cyclists came to us through another channel and not through their director as they have said. I told them that with me they were not going to have doping problems, as they have. They haven't tested positive or anything. We are absolutely clean, that is clear. None of the riders in Operation Ilex are accused, they are witnesses".

"Example Miguel Ángel López. Never. In this case, never. Previously I have not had the need either. There are conversations in which I talk to Vicente (Belda). I give you the example of Miguel Ángel López, I see that the cyclist is doing so well that I make it clear to him that there is no need to use doping. I think cycling is cleaner than ever".

"I think the young cyclist is being harmed, we are not allowing him to gain experience, now they demand hardness after 4 days. The loads and training levels are all based on watts and they don't look at the heart rate. Physiologically, cycling today is less controlled than in the past, before the doctor was constantly with the riders, now the one who is with him all the time is the coach. The doctor doesn't play a role. So you have kids in their early twenties with anemia because of the intensity. That's what led me to come back, damn the time.

"I was in charge of all the medical issues. I sent them blood tests after the laps as it is normally done to see if they had to rest more or less. I sent each one of them what they had to take during the race, the nutritional intake...We have not charged anything from the riders. Nothing from the beginning. Imagine how eager we were to make money. The document says that they had to pay monthly, there is nothing".

"Because they don't have to tell you. There's a problem with teams now: if you don't do what the team tells you, you get marginalized. There's a huge corporatism for the team."

"They have the right to have whoever they want. Miguel apart from having me had his own nutritionist and Enric Mas has his own coach who is not the Movistar Team coach. Like many others. I'm talking about Mas because I know his physical trainer".

"I know who has leaked it and it is going to be known, it is something that cannot be done, moreover manipulating. Because the worst thing is that they have not taken everything out, but it is cut and pasted and adapted or as you want. Show it all if you filter it, not manipulated. I understand that Caja Rural is angry".

"I hope so, for the moment there is no more talk of doping. Before I was accused of doping, drug trafficking and money laundering. At the moment when they write about doping, they no longer write about doping. The Belda's have already testified and have made it clear that Mr. Lopez did not receive anything in Hungary or anywhere else".

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JUAN LARRA (@MrGladbach)