Team Emirates UAE's Tadej Pogacar (left) holds the young rider's top jersey with GC leader Jonas Wingegard in yellow. Photo: Getty Images/Tim de Waele
Where there is elite sport, there is the possibility of cheating, and at events like the Tour de France, the specter of doping is rarely far from the surface.
Prior to this week, pre-race favorites Jonas Wingegaard and Tadej Pogacar fought one of the most exciting battles for the Tour yellow jersey in decades.
Despite repeated vicious attacks from two-time winner Pogacar during last weekend's mountain stages, defending champion Wingegaard parried his sparring partner's jabs as if flies away. Just 10 seconds separated them from a rest day on the Monday after the 2613.5 km (1624 miles) race. However, the race turned upside down after the Tuesday leg.
D'une autre planete (from another planet) spattered L'Équipe the morning after Wingegaard gutted Pogacar and the rest of the peloton in a relatively short 22.4km hilly time trial, as shown in the video below.
1 minute 38 seconds, scored by Wingegor, caused surprise not only among some cyclists, but also among the editors of a respected French publication. bears a resemblance to the previous issue 24 years ago. Photo: L'Equipe
Wednesday's headline was reminiscent of a similar front page in 1999, when Lance Armstrong closed out the first of seven rounds he was later banned for doping.
L'Equipe in 1999 talks about the exploits of Lance Armstrong. Photo: L'Equipe
The day after Wingegaard almost killed Pogacar's hopes for another year, the quiet Dane won just under six minutes against the Slovenian to extend his lead to 7 minutes 35 seconds.
Few will be surprised to find that in the following days Wingegaard's team, the Dutch Jimbo-Visma team, questioned the fairness of these performances. “I understand that it is difficult to trust cycling with a past that has been,” Wingegaard said on Wednesday.
Until the past few years, the average age of a Tour champion has been around 28 years old. Egan Bernal (22), Pogacar (21) and Wingegaard (25) have countered this trend since 2019.
If power meters were once the preserve of senior professionals, the growing proliferation of them among the younger ranks—along with a deeper understanding of how to train more effectively—has leveled the playing field dramatically. Similarly, the use of glucose monitors during exercise, along with fitness trackers that help manage sleep and recovery, is a game-changer.
Perhaps more important, according to some experts, was a recent study that found that endurance athletes' carbohydrate tolerance was significantly higher—120 grams per hour—than previously thought.
It was the gas station, or lack of it, that ended Pogacar's race after his dramatic crash on the road to Courchevel on Wednesday. “He's just really tired and had a bad day in the digest situation,” UAE Team Emirates sports director Andrei Hauptman told cyclingnews.com this week. “He tried to eat, but he couldn't eat much. And after that it was pretty empty in the finale.”
“I left. I'm dead.”
Tadej Pogacar said to the team's car after crashing on the Col de la Loz 😢#TdF2023 | @TeamEmiratesUAE pic.twitter.com/vm2XIFFsfv
— Eurosport (@eurosport), July 19, 2023
Those who think the sport has become the cleanest in recent years have been elated by the sight of a two-time winner getting fucked, the name given to a cyclist who has depleted his glycogen levels.
So, is the peloton still doping? Simple answer: we don't know. While it would be easy to blame Wingegaard unless some hard evidence is presented that is not there, we must base our opinions on facts.
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