Groupama-FDJ manager Marc Madiot has roundly rejected claims by his counterpart at Jumbo-Visma, Richard Plugge, that the riders from the French team had been seen drinking “big beers” on the second rest day of the Tour de France.
Plugge had made the accusations in an interview in LÉquipe, where he again defended his team from any kind of malpractice, insisting that race leader Jonas Vingegaard “did not even like taking paracetamol” and “refuses to use Ketones.”
The Dutch manager then proceeded to criticise an unnamed French team he had seen drinking “big beers” on the rest day in their hotel to highlight the difference between his and other teams at the Tour de France.
Only one other French squad, Groupama-FDJ, was staying in the same hotel on the second Tour de France rest day in the Alps.
“We look around us to see what the others do. For example, we were with a French team in our hotel on the rest day,” Plugge told L’Équipe. “We could see the riders drinking big beers.”
“Alcohol is poison, and when you are already tired, it’ll make you even more fatigued.”
“At the start of the last week of the Tour, which is the most important, you have to be careful what you eat and drink. Nobody [in our team] drinks alcohol, because that breaks you and even those who aren’t riders shouldn’t drink. We can open our doors, reply to all the questions, but you have to look at the other side as well. Because that explains part of the differences, not only in our favour, but also in the other [teams] detriment.”
Plugge has tried to defend Jumbo-Visma’s dominance at the Tour de France after Jonas Vingegaard may have pushed his performance to new heights in the key time trial stage.
“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,” he told Cyclingnews on Thursday.
“Apparently if you win in cycling, to the French you apparently never can do it right. Me, I would say, ‘Come over, we can tell you everything.’ I answer every question, like I do now.”
True to character, Madiot reacted furiously to the claims about the beer-quaffing French riders, directly describing the accusations as “shabby.”
“How can somebody dare to say something like that,” Madiot fumed.
“They [the riders] weren’t at our dinner table. Other members of the team have drunk a beer. But the riders were on Perrier water.”
While agreeing…
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