Jonas Vingegaard may have pushed performance to new heights with his domination of this Tour de France, but there is a sense of déjà vu about the story all the same. In the 25 years since the Festina Affair shattered the illusions of old, the exploits of the race winner have generally tended to be greeted with as much suspicion as wonderment.
The murmured unease that greeted some of the climbing speeds earlier in this race has amplified into a more open kind of scepticism during a third week that has seen Vingegaard turn a previously tight duel with Tadej Pogačar into a procession.
On the morning after Vingegaard’s decisive victory in the Combloux time trial, for instance, the front page of L’Équipe pointedly described his display as “from another planet.” On Thursday, Ouest France spoke of a “climate of embarrassment” at the Tour, quoting various unnamed sources from within the peloton who spoke of their discouragement in the face of Vingegaard’s crushing displays.
In his press conference in Courchevel on Wednesday evening, Vingegaard acknowledged the scepticism that inevitably greets the maillot jaune of the Tour – “I understand that it’s hard to trust in cycling with the past there has been” – but he was unable to suggest what more he could do to allay the suspicions.
Before the start of stage 16 in Moutiers on Thursday, Cyclingnews put the same question to Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plugge. The Dutchman insisted that his outfit had already demonstrated its commitment to racing without doping by allowing various film crews and reporters to embed themselves with the team in recent years.
“Can we do more? We have two camera teams 24/7 with us, with Netflix and Amazon, and we had the writer of a book for three years in the team. We had a journalist from L’Équipe with us last year for a couple of days in the training camp,” Plugge said. “We open our doors always, and I think that especially journalists should put a little more effort into [analysing] what’s happening.
“I think also it’s the job and the responsibility of some journalists to look a little bit deeper into it rather than just spread around suspicion. Of course, this sport has a long history of this, but I think WADA said we were once the worst kid of the class and nowadays we were in the top three. We open our doors, we are transparent, we do as much as we can. And yeah, we are always happy to answer all questions. So, ask us the questions and we will answer.”
From Blanco to Jumbo
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