Tadej Pogačar has not yet begun his 2026 racing season, but his dominant UAE Team Emirates have already made plenty of headlines on the road, by hoovering up many of the year’s opening races.
Business as usual then, except that as the all-conquering Pogačar targets a record-equalling fifth Tour de France win in July, a sticky problem that has just been revealed for his team in Spain.
A growing mystery surrounds why one of his key support riders, Marc Soler, would have any contact at all with José “Pepe” Martí, a coach banned for 15 years in the aftermath of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.
The revelation that Martí, currently prohibited from working with athletes in any sport and against whom both the US Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency sought a lifetime ban, has been active since at least 2023 and has connections to one of Pogačar's key Tour de France team-mates, has created shockwaves in the sport.
Earlier this month, Soler denied any meaningful relationship with Martí. Speaking to the cycling website, Escape Collective, the rider said: “I have nothing to hide. I haven't done anything wrong.”
In October 2018, the Court of Arbitration in Sport (Cas) increased the length of the 2012 sanction on Martí for his part in the Armstrong affair, from eight to 15 years. He, along with others, was described by Usada as having “encouraged riders to engage in a coordinated, well-funded and sophisticated doping regime”.
Floyd Landis, formerly a team-mate to Armstrong and one of the key whistleblowers in the Usada case against the American, told German channel ARD in 2011 that Martí was “nothing more than a known drug-trafficker” who had supplied him with “growth hormones, EPO and other illegal substances”.
The Usada investigation into Armstrong had also found that Martí couriered products “including EPO, testosterone, human growth hormone, and cortisone to locations where riders were living in Europe”.
In 2023, in a story that has echoes of past doping scandals – mysterious meetings, strange deliveries and remote roadside rendezvous – Spanish anti-doping body, Celad, received anonymous tip-offs that, despite the 15-year ban imposed on him, Martí was once again working with athletes.
After placing Martí under surveillance, Celad’s investigative report shows that in August 2023, he met with Soler and his triathlete father Jaume, close to the border with Andorra.
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Martí was believed to have travelled from Valencia, Soler senior from Barcelona, in the direction of Andorra, where his son, Marc, lives and trains.
Under surveillance and with the cooperation of the Guardia Civil, Martí and Jaume Soler were followed and then stopped, in Adrall in northern Spain, while driving towards the tax haven of Andorra. They were in possession of lactate testing equipment which Jaume Soler later claimed was for testing use on him, as he said that Martí was training him as a runner.
The meeting grew more significant when Marc Soler, riding in full UAE Team Emirates kit, appeared on the road and was then trailed by the Guardia Civil to a second brief meeting, with his father and Martí, where he was identified by police.
In subsequent statements, Jaume Soler denied any suggestions that his son was working or collaborating with Martí, and claimed that Martí had been his own coach.
The saga is significant as Spanish anti-doping processes have for many years left much to be desired
The saga is significant as Spanish anti-doping processes have for many years left much to be desired
In the end, after many months of back and forth, it was his father, Jaume, who was finally sanctioned in October last year – more than two years after the 2023 roadside checkpoint – when Celad banned him for 18 months from obtaining a sporting licence from any sporting federation.
The saga is all the more significant given the long-held belief that Spanish anti-doping processes have for many years left much to be desired.
In January 2024, after Spain was again found non-compliant with the Wada code, Witold Banka, president of the anti-doping body, said: “I am disappointed with the level of cooperation we have received from Celad as we seek to improve the system for Spanish athletes.
“We are well aware of the deep-seated problems in the Spanish anti-doping system. The fact that there are positive cases that have not been dealt with in a timely manner, despite regular monitoring by Wada, is unacceptable.”
In the aftermath of those words, there was considerable change, with Jose Luis Terreros, then the director of Celad, being ousted amid allegations of “irregularities”.
In late 2024, former swimmer Carlos Peralta took on Terreros’s role, and Celad said that it had strengthened its commitment to anti-doping and that it would be testing athletes more extensively while taking steps to meet WadaA's objectives.
It is unclear if any further action will be taken against Martí, or if a wider investigation into his activities within cycling and elsewhere is ongoing. There is growing speculation that he has been present at other training locations in Spain favoured by some of the peloton's leading names.
Usada CEO, Travis Tygart, told The Observer: “We have a good relationship with the new leadership at Celad and have worked closely with them, when needed, to ensure the rules protecting clean athletes are enforced.”
Contacted by The Observer, a spokesperson for Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates said: “There is no case or sanction involving Marc, so we won’t be commenting on speculative reports.”
Meanwhile, Pogačar’s team continues to dominate. His Mexican colleague, Isaac del Toro, laid down an early season marker by winning the UAE Tour, while others in the team have also won in Australia, Spain and Oman. Despite the controversy over Martí, the team’s success continues, undeterred.
Photography by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images