Miguel Angel Lopez (1994, Astana) faces his second season at the highest level after having shown flashes of his potential in 2015. The Colombian already knows a draft of his schedule for 2016 and will start his season at the Tour de San Luis, with a debut at the Vuelta a Espana being the highlight.

After his win the 2014 Tour de l'Avenir 'Superman' Lopez made ​​his mark in his first year as a pro with a stage win in the Vuelta a Burgos and seventh overall in the Tour of Switzerland, despite having just 34 racing days. BiciCiclismo reports that he has outlined his schedule for 2016: Tour de San Luis, Tour de Langkawi, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Tour de Romandie, Tour of Switzerland, Tour of Austria, Vuelta a Burgos and the Vuelta a Espana. He also hopes to get selected for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Astana's plan was for him to start his season at the Volta ao Algarve, but he has had to return to Colombia to renew his visa and thus will start in San Luis (January 18-24). His next stop will be the Tour de Langkawi (March 6-13) which leads to three consecutive WorldTour stage races, Catalunya (March 21-27), Pais Vasco (April 4-9) and Romandie (April 26-May 1). In the second part, he will return to Switzerland (June 11-19), where he was fourth behind Pinot, Pozzovivo and Spilak in last year's queen stage and then head to Austria (July 3-10) and Burgos (August 2-6) where he won a stage in 2015. Finally, he faces his first grand tour, the Vuelta a Espana (August 20-September 11). He dreams of being able to defend the national jersey in the road race at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Due to injury, he only did 34 days of racing in 2015. His knee forced him to abandon in Catalunya, but once he got into the rhythm, he did no go unnoticed: he was second in a stage of the Tour of Turkey and had a breakthrough in Switzerland where he was fourth on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden and seventh overall behind Spilak, Thomas, Dumoulin, Pinot, Jungels and Pozzovivo. The icing on the cake came in in Burgos where he won the uphill finish in Pineda de la Sierra, wore the leader's jersey and missed the final victory by just 12 seconds, finishing fourth behind teammate Taaramae, Dani Moreno and another teammate, Scarponi. He was selected for the Colombian team for the Worlds in Richmond and finished the season in Il Lombardia where he celebrated the victory of his leader Vincenzo Nibali.