Just three months after parting company with Movistar, Miguel Angel López has re-ignited his dispute with the team, saying the tactics were never clear during races.
He has also questioned the approach of his former team mate Enric Mas, suggesting they were in competition despite being team mates and claiming Mas was selfish in his dealings with him.
López went from hero to zero on the closing stages of La Vuelta this year; winning stage 18 and sitting 3rd overall when he climbed off his bike in protest on stage 20, quitting the race and effectively walking out on the team.
He also said that after stage 20 Mas had asked him why he had chased him after the favourites' group had split on a climb - just before López climbed off his bike.
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López added: “Enric is a selfish person". He explained he did not want to be in the same line-up as him at races after that Vuelta.
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López's contract was dissolved soon after his Vuelta exit, when he missed a key split in the favourites' group on stage 20 and was then told not to chase as Mas was in the first half of the split and was consolidating 2nd overall.
“The atmosphere in the Movistar team was always very tense,” López said in a TV interview in his native Colombia as he is about to return to his old team, Astana, next year.
"Whenever I was ahead Enric always looked for a way to move in front of me. Our roles were never clear," he said of his time with Movistar.
“I worked on the Dauphine for Valverde, but in the Grand Tours our roles were not clear,” he said, adding he was not distanced on the climb of stage 20 at La Vuelta but had instead followed team orders.
“I stopped working because Mas asked me. When I was losing about 40 to 50 seconds, Eusebio Unzue told me it was a hard situation but I was to stop working as I wouldn’t catch the riders ahead. That pissed me off a lot and so I got off my bike.”
