"Pogacar, Evenepoel & Vingegaard deliver crazy results, but I could not imagine there is any organized doping" - Cycling haunted by 'skeletons of the past' says Michael Morkov

As the performance levels in the peloton get better than ever, questions continue to be asked by some about where these improvements are coming from. Given the murky and clouded past of the sport, it's not a completely unwarranted question, but according to the recently retired Michael Morkov, there is no such doping operations in the peloton today.

Morkov retired after nearly two decades at the highest level in the sport at the end of the 2024 season, and has since been announced as the new National Coach of Denmark. Speaking to Brian Holm and Bastian Emil on the podcast Café Eddy though, Morkov insists that despite the lingering doubt from some, the peloton of today is much changed compared to the one he entered in the early years of his career. 

"It's true that Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard deliver some crazy results, but I've been with them out there, and they're also lighter and stronger than I am. I don't think I'm experiencing anything unnatural," the 39-year-old Dane explains of the situation from his point of view, having been present at the Tour de France in 2024, riding in support of Mark Cavendish. "But it's clear that with the wild performances, you can think of the skeletons of the past in the closets."

Having first made the jump to World Tour level back in 2009 at Saxo-Bank, Morkov saw the dark side of doping in the peloton during his younger years. As his career developed though, the sport of cycling has presented an increasingly cleaner image and the former leadout expert is keen to insist that organised mass doping is indeed a thing of the past.

"I think we have moved on," Morkov concludes firmly. "I could not imagine in my wildest imagination that there is any organized doping in the upper echelons of professional cycling."