"A cheating Russian" - Alexander Foliforov accused of hanging on to a car to win 2016 Giro d'Italia time trial by former Visma rider

The Giro d'Italia is beginning this Friday, and in a recent interview, former Visma rider Jos van Emden has taken a trip down memory lane into a very particular incident that happened 10 years ago. The former pro thoroughly accuses Alexander Foliforov of hanging on to a car during that memorable 2016 Giro mountain time trial, cheating his way into victory.

The explosive remarks were said in an interview with Wielerevue in which van Emden, currently a sports director at Visma, directly accused Russian climber Alexander Foliforov of cheating in order to win the 2016 mountain time trial at Alpe di Siusi.

That day was marked by controversy. The results came as a shock, taking into consideration the then 24-year old had no previous record of such climbing performance in or out of the World Tour. The Russian team had a wildcard and started the mountain time trial without a contender for the stage. In a day where the 11-kilometer time trial was set to see only the strongest climbers in the race take to the front and fight for the stage win, they were all surprised by Foliforov, an early starter who set an incredible time.

Van Emden was part of the Visma team at the time who had Steven Kruijswijk in the race lead. The two finished with the exact same time, but it was Foliforov who took the win. As a result, Steven Kruijswijk continued his career without a Grand Tour stage win, something he would never achieve later on in his career. Van Emden took great issue to this, because he strongly believes Foliforov cheated his way into victory.

"It was a mixed feeling, because there was certainly disappointment. He was the best, but was beaten by a cheating Russian," the former pro said to the Dutch news outlet. "Steven is going to end his career without a stage win in a Grand Tour. That is a loss for someone of such stature."

He explains in detail what he believes Foliforov did and why, not pointing towards a doping accusation, but to an episode of cheating in plain sight: "At a certain point, that Russian was more than half a minute behind, then he was far ahead of Steven, and at the finish line he lost a lot of time again. It is crystal clear that he was hanging onto the car," he argued.

There were never fully clear answers on the 'Foliforov question', a rider that did finish fifth on the final mountain stage of that Giro; but one who would never again have any climbing performance anywhere similar to the one he did that day. The Russian rider won the KOM classification at the 2017 Tour of the Alps, and retired in 2018 at 26 years of age.

Van Emden never got over what he believes was plain wrongdoing. "A day later I went to look him up, and later I spoke to him about it again. Even though he barely spoke English. I said to him ‘tell me how you actually won that time trial.’ Another guy translated for him. His reaction was ‘tell me how you won that time trial in 2017 (correction: it is unclear what van Emden refers to, ed.).’ I replied: ‘Differently than you, by cycling hard'."

"It's strange that no one filmed that, because even back then there were plenty of mobile phones," he continued. The Dutch team looked on their way to a Giro victory with their leader, but a crash on stage 19 further engraved a disaster finale to the Corsa Rosa as that too was lost.

"At the time, Steven handled it well, because he realized there was a bigger goal to achieve. But yeah, I can't imagine it leaves him cold."