The sensational accusations from Jerome Pineau that Jumbo-Visma are guilty of mechanical doping have taken the cycling world by storm, with the majority on the side of the Dutch-based team. Cyrille Guimard has such a view and has slammed Pineau for making his public accusation without having any proof.
"It leaves me a little perplexed, I don't have the feeling of having seen the same things," the 76-year-old, knowledgeable, Frenchman says in his Vuelta a Espana column for Cyclism'Actu. "There is no proof, absolutely nothing. This is the big problem with cycling. We are capable of saying everything... Jérôme says what he wants, but it would be nice if he arrives with proof, since once again, we are casting doubt on cycling without anything specific."
The point that Pineau believes the mechanical doping became clear was an attack by Sepp Kuss on the Col du Tourmalet on stage 13. "It's his opinion, it's what he thinks, it's what he thinks he saw... one thing is certain: it allowed him to return to the news," Guimard retorts. "I have a lot of contacts with the professional level and I have absolutely not heard of that. Honestly, I do not validate the comments. Since his appearance on RMC, I have heard from riders and former riders who are more than annoyed."
"We can't do anything about this kind of talk, it's part of the DNA of cycling. From the moment you win, whether you're the strongest or not, doped or not, the important thing is that if you win, you cheated. And that's not new, you have to live with it," Guimard continues in a damning indictment of the reputation of elite level cycling.
"When there are real things, you have to go to the end and make sure that the institutions move. As for the Lance Armstrong case, where there were very disturbing things and where we finally found. When there are really more than disturbing things, it is not a single person, by statements, who will force change," Guimard concludes. "Or otherwise, the riders themselves would have to provide concrete evidence. But the first ones to start rumours are often the riders because they can't stand being beaten and so they think that if they're beaten it's not because of their true values."
