Football analyst launched doping accusation to Tadej Pogacar directly: "In a few years you'll hear who actually won"
CyclingFriday, 19 July 2024 at 10:40
On the Vandaag Inside, a football analyst Jack van Gelder has launched accusations of doping at the Tour de France for Tadej Pogacar specifically. The Dutch commentator was asked about the ongoing race and his response was of complete skepticism over the current performance of the yellow jersey.
Asked if he believes these performances, he reponded: "Of course not. They keep finding new things. It can't be that they keep riding faster and performing better. That's just not possible. There are limits to the human body. At a certain point, it's no longer made to do the things that we would like to be able to do in principle. It has to be faster, higher and better and at a certain point you're limited."
He continues: "Pogacar apparently doesn't have that limitation: he rides up four minutes faster than anyone in history has ever done". Pogacar rode up Plateau de Beille 3:44 minutes faster than Marco Pantani in 1998; but van Gelder's accusation is literally based on a wrong fact, since the Slovenian only climbed 1:08 minutes faster than rival Jonas Vingegaard. Van Gelder believes that eventually his victory will be removed, as has happened in the early 2000's with plenty riders. "It might be possible with body-own substances or whatever. But things happen... in a few years you'll hear who actually won."
His words brought the attention of the cycling world and Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld promptly responded: "Ah, Jack van Gelder is now also a medical specialist who knows exactly the limits of the human body. Maybe next time he can explain how it is possible that footballers run twice as many kilometres as in the 1970s. Or why they sprint so much faster than ten years ago. It's not about what you believe, it's not a religion. You have to prove, substantiate and investigate before you shout these kinds of things."
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UltimateOpportunist02-06-2025 - That would make Wout worth about 9.4 million in gold as of today. His current salary is about 3.8 million, so write him a 5.6 million bonus check...awp02-06-2025
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Forget for a second about climbing times, and look at some other numbers. Slovenia is a tiny country with a population of approximately 2.1 million people. Rather suddenly, despite its small population and its near complete lack of cycling history or development infrastructure, riders from that country have now won 8 of the last 15 Grand Tours -- and would probably have vastly more if Roglic crashed less-frequently, or Pogacar started more often. And are looking to make it 9 of 16 in a couple weeks.
That simply is not plausible.
In the long history of Grand Tours, only 6 other nations have won more than 7 -- the smallest of which by-far is 450% more populous than Slovenia, and it took the Swiss half a century to win 10, while Slovenia looks to win more than that in 5 years.
If Roglic hadn't crashed in the 2021 TdF which forced the battlefield promotion of Vingegaard, Slovenia would be sitting right now on at least 10 of the last 15 Grand Tours. That is way beyond plausible.
Both of those riders are also managing results that are nearly unprecedented at their ages, with neither being in the traditional prime for cycling. That adds to the implausibility of the situation.
The odds that two of the greatest cyclists the world has ever seen were both born and developed in the same tiny, non-cycling, country, within 9 years, are simply too long to even consider calculating.
The situation does not add up to anything legal, unfortunately. We will probably find out in a decade or two that someone in Slovenia, or working on their behalf, discovered a cocktail that works and doesn't trigger a positive test. There isn't much of a reasonable alternative -- just like there wasn't when Armstrong, also from a country with very little cycling development ( but 150 times the population ) dominated all comers.
Sorry but that is an amazingly naïve argument. By that standard Luxembourg should never have won any major cycling events, Jamaica would never have had a period of sprinting domination, Ukraine wouldn’t have so many world class boxers Why do we have Nurmis or Zatopeks? Because sports anomalies on the whole aren’t defined by nationality or randomly distributed, they depend on a huge range of socioculturoeconomic factors but very often it takes just one in one country to stimulate a whole swathe of people to try to become the next. Country domination comes and goes, who will take over after Pog&Rog??? The Dutch only asked this question for their own case because they don’t understand the nature of sport, you cannot find or produce MVDPs on demand, when they appear it’s an exceptional mix of coincidence, fortune, management and work. Spain, France and Italy are just waiting, and waiting for their own chance to shine again.