After Tadej Pogačar’s Giro win post, this reel is still his most popular Instagram post with almost a half a milion likes. Then in second place there is the post of the win in stage 20 at the Tour de France, then Tour 2023 stage 6 win and then only his post with a Giro trophy.
“Doping has been around since the beginning of time, but these are not the same products they use now” - French ex-pro sensationally accuses Tadej Pogacar
CyclingMonday, 03 June 2024 at 07:35
Given cycling's somewhat murky past in regards to doping, there will always be those who question when a rider begins to dominate. Tadej Pogacar, after his comprehensive victory at the Giro d'Italia is now coming under fire from those doubters.
“I saw them in the passes that I also climbed. It's amazing what Pogacar did. He's not tired, he goes up climbs laughing," says French ex-pro and former teammate of Laurent Fignon, Philippe Saudé in a sensational allegation of the UAE Team Emirates leader's doping in conversation with RMC. "Soon we will have to put bales of straw on the climbs.”
Although he has no proof to back up these allegations, Saude is clear in what he accuses and makes no bones about it either. “Doping has been around since the beginning of time, but these are not the same products they use now,” the experienced Frenchman continues. “And what will happen in the coming years is scary.”
At the 2023 Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard too was in the midst of a doping allegation storm after he destroyed the field, Pogacar included, in an individual time-trial and after the then-Jumbo-Visma dominated at the Vuelta a Espana. Saude has back-up in his allegations on Pogacar if not proof, with former Festina coach Antoine Vayer calling the performance 'Inhuman.'
“The other best riders in the world have 10-15% less watts and are no longer trying to keep up," Vayer says, adding fuel to the fire of the doubters. "If we are not complicit or intellectually dishonest and if we are clear, we will understand the extent of the underlying deception that we know all too well in this sport.”
In the end, Pogacar took a dominant victory by just short of ten minutes at the Giro d'Italia ahead of Daniel Martinez. Currently the Slovenian is resting up ahead of the second leg of his Grand Tour double at the Tour de France later this summer.
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024