While the 2024 Tour de France has been the stage for Tadej Pogačar to showcase his abilities and continue proving that he’s in a league of his own right now, the dominant performances haven’t come without the ever-so-sharp scrutiny of fans and observers. And some might even say that the scrutiny is, to a degree justified.
Take a look at the man in yellow jersey’s Bastille Day superhuman performance on the final climb of Plateau de Beille. Just after a day of delivering a warning shot to his chief rival Jonas Vingegaard on Pla d’Adet, he made sure that this was the one-two sucker punch Visma-Lease a Bike wouldn’t see coming.
On Sunday, Pogačar smashed the 28-year old record on Plateau de Beille held by Marco Pantani by over three minutes, the UAE Team Emirates rider climbed the 15.8km ascent in a time of 39:41, with commentators and analysts putting his performance up there as one of the best climbing displays of all-time.
But soon enough, the French newspaper L’Equipe ran the headline: “A domination that raises questions”. A headline that followed last week’s revelation from Escape Collective that UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike and Israel Premier Tech have all used the carbon monoxide equipment.
That acceleration by Tadej Pogacar! 🤯 #TDF2024pic.twitter.com/7mEZkVLkAq
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 17, 2024
Though the practice is not banned by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), although some people have mentioned that it appears to conflict with the agency’s rules around artificial manipulation of the blood. The teams, meanwhile, stressed that they had used it purely for testing purposes to “optimise” their altitude training, with Pogačar now confirming it after yesterday’s stage.
The two-time Tour winner said: “It's a test in altitude camp to see how you respond to altitude. You need to do this test, it's like a two- or three-minute-long test. You breathe into a balloon for one minute and then you see the haemoglobin mass, and then you need to repeat it two weeks after.
“But I did just the first part of the test. I never did the second part because the girl who was supposed to come after two weeks didn't come. It's not like we're breathing exhaust pipes every day in the cars. It's just a pretty simple test to see how you respond to altitude training.”
Pogačar had previously brushed off the question when asked about it by reporters. “When I heard this, I was thinking about the car exhaust, I don’t know. I don’t know about that much, so I have no comment. I don’t know what it is. I was always thinking about what goes out from the exhaust of a car,” he said on Tuesday after stage 16, adding with his sly chuckle: “Maybe I’m just uneducated.”
On Monday, Jonas Vingegaard confirmed carbon monoxide rebreathers use in his team in an interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken, saying, “There is nothing suspicious about it.”
Exhaust fumes or not, it will be interesting to see how this situation develops and what WADA and the UCI’s is stance on it.
Some more handy reading for you, very much on topic with the day's blog...
Sports nutrition has come on along way since the early days of the Tour de France, with teams employing experts to closely monitor their rider's eating and drinking before, during and after their efforts. Here's a detailed look at how they do it
A rare day at the Tour de France as not only did the breakaway enjoy a second consecutive day in keeping the peloton at bay (although enjoyed would be an interesting way to put the pain and suffering they endure), but also because also marking a rare day with no GC attacks on a non-bunch sprint day.
Victor Campenaerts from Lotto-Dstny was the big winner of the day, the 32-year-old Belgian rider outsprinting his breakaway mates Mattéo Vercher and Michael Kwiatkowski and adding a Tour de France stage win to his palmares, alongside the 2021 Giro stage win.
The trio, who had been on the road all on their own for a while reached the final kilometre with a comfortable gap of 26 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, when TotalEnergies’ Vercher decided to launch a very early sprint. That attempt would soon fizzle out as Ineos Grenadiers’ Kwiatkowski did well to reel him in.
From there on, it was a game of cat and mouse as Campenaerts kept his cars very close to his chest, then suddenly launching from behind Kwiatkowski and Vercher in the very final few seconds, leaving them no time to react.
Mice, meet Cat. 🇧🇪@VCampenaerts takes the win after a tough battle of cat and mouse between the trio. Relive the final KM here ⤵️
🇧🇪@VCampenaerts remporte l'étape après une rude bataille du chat et de la souris entre le trio. Revivez la finale KM ici ⤵️#TDF2024pic.twitter.com/8n99Xo1AFA
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 18, 2024
Campenaerts, welling up with tears, said after the finish: “Winning a stage in Tour de France is everybody’s dream. I have been dreaming of this moment for a very long time. I only had a verbal agreement with the team to extend my contract, went to altitude training camp… It wasn’t easy, I was having a very difficult time.
“My girlfriend supported me through it all, I became a dad and then I started to see the beautiful blue skies. I started feeling good on the bike, and now I believe there’s a future for me as a cyclist,” Campenaerts said, welling up with tears of emotion after the finish.
He added: “I think I played it very smart. My team gave me the confidence, they said I have very good legs. We targeted this stage since December, I looked at stage 18 and said this is the stage I want to win.”
“I even played a dirty, acting like I was hurting, following other people’s wheels, but it worked out in the end… We are going to celebrate tonight!”
The top three of the general classification finished 13:40 behind the breakaway, with no changes to the GC top 10.
You can tell it's relaxed in the peloton 😅
Jasper Stuyven sharing M&Ms around 🇧🇪🍬🍫#TDF2024pic.twitter.com/UFJoepsdnO
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 18, 2024
Here’s one for your afternoon lunchtime conspiracy theory read.
If you’ve been spending any time buried in the niche cycling pigeonhole of social media, you’ve probably heard more about one person’s name mentioned more than anyone else in the last few days. No it’s not Tadej Pogačar, no it’s Jonas Vingegaard, no it’s not Elisa Longo Borghini. It’s the anonymous personality who goes by the name of Mou.
This figure came to the prominence when they started posting in detail about UAE Team Emirates’, and specifically Tadej Pogačar’s training camp on a Cyclingnews forum. They even ended up receiving a ban on the forum after some questionable language and claiming that they have “insider knowledge” of Pogačar’s new training methods and regime under new coach Javier Sola.
Who is this mythical prophet »mou« who made the cycling world go crazy today and leaks information about Tadej Pogačar?
A THREAD
1/N pic.twitter.com/xhAltog0rz
— Tratnikmousismo (@Tratnikstan) July 16, 2024
Mou even made a brand new account on Twitter, where they’ve continued to post info about Pogačar and the rest of the UAE Team Emirates, and even some other riders. Recently, he even shared Pogačar’s power profile data, leaving fans in disbelief and some questioning if there was even a mole within the team.
After yesterday’s stage, Danish website Ekstra Bladet asked if Pogačar could shed any light on Mou’s identity. The Slovenian rider replied smilingly: “Maybe I should ask to you guys if you know who this is because I have no idea who this guy is. But yeah, I’ve heard in the last two days he's getting a lot of attention. I think he is right about some of it, but most of it is wrong.
“I don't know who that guy is and what his purpose is. He's just trying to be important on Twitter and on various forums. I don't follow it, but I've heard a lot about it, and people ask. Maybe we can all figure it out together.
“It is perhaps more your task than mine to find out who he is,” he added, referring to the journalists at the press conference.
— mou (@mou55981652) July 16, 2024
Everyone get your tinfoil hats on, let’s figure out who is Mou together!
Breaking down the different dynamics you see with a breakaway of nearly 40 riders.#TDF2024@brentbookwalter@PaulWBurmeisterpic.twitter.com/cmwaiZXDMb
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 18, 2024
I know, the blog's probably showing a bit too much love to Pogačar today, but looks like there's someone who doesn't share the same feelings: 2017 Giro d'Italia winner and ex Dutch pro Tom Dumoulin.
hTe former Team DSM–Firmenich PostNL (then known as Team Sunweb, and erm, Project 1t4i) rider had some thoughts to share about yesterday's last-minute antics from the Slovenian who holds the yellow jersey with a three-minute advantage, but decided to make the already-chaotic race even more so with an explosive atack that eventually ended up going nowhere.
Speaking to Dutch news media outlet NOS, Dumoulin said: "This is a pure bluff, it's a mere show of strength. Pogačar is three minutes ahead, he doesn't need to do this. He does it just to annoy Vingegaard. It has something to do with arrogance.
"Pogačar can't stand the fact that he has been beaten for two years in a row. Now he has finally returned to being the boss and has the legs to hurt Vingegaard again. His thought is: now it's all coming back to you."
However, as many people have noted, yesterday's attack probably had less to do with arrogance, and more to do with Pogačar simply being a tenacious yet attacking-minded rider who can conjure the most effortless-looking bursts of acceleration out of nowhere — and all because he admittedly loves racing.
In the past, there have been plenty of instances where Pogačar has attacked without any specific aim or goal. Perhaps the most obvious one that comes to mind is last year's attack on the Champs-Elysees, despite being 7 minutes behind Vingegaard and knowing full-well that it's a stage for the sprinters and he would eventually be caught.
As a Twitter account said: "Relax Tom, it's just Pogi being Pogi..."
Ribble has completely overhauled its lineup with the introduction of the Allroad range, featuring three new road bikes: the Allroad SL R, Allroad SL and Allroad SL R e. The top-tier SL R offers space for tyres up to 38mm wide, internal storage and "world-class aerodynamic performance" paired with endurance-specific geometry, according to Ribble. Prices for the Allroad bikes start at £1,699 and go all the way up to £8,499, and we've already got one of each model for review. Read on for all the juicy tech info and our senior reviewer's first impressions...
Cyclists in Birmingham have fighting to keep their peers alive for quite some time, and last month, there was another unfortunate development in the crusade, with three riders dying in collisions.
It’s not the first time this has happened in the city. Last year, things came to a head with a spate of protests and actions organised after seven hit-and-runs, with four cyclists, including a 12-year-old boy, “killed by motorists” in just over three weeks.
And it looks like things have taken a turn for the worse once again, with history repeating itself as three cyclists losing their lives once again in the last month. To mark this tragic event, people across Birmingham came together this morning to “cycle in solidarity” with those who have lost their lives and their grieving families and friends.
Three cyclists have been killed on Birmingham’s streets in the last month. Tomorrow morning at 8am people across Birmingham will come together to “cycle in solidarity” with those who have lost their lives and their grieving families and friends.@for_harbquin@for_birminghampic.twitter.com/NgtapfbFY5
— Sarah Chaundler (@ChaundlerSarah) July 17, 2024
Mat MacDonald from Better Streets for Birmingham said: “We know that it’s possible to structure roads and organise our laws and educate our drivers in such a way that people don’t have to die under the wheels of a vehicle. And so when there are still people dying in this way daily, it represents a massive failure on the part of the authorities who can make that happen.
“So we need to see more investment and protection for people outside the vehicles, lower speed limits across the city so that where vehicles and people and vulnerable road users such as cyclists are mixing together, cars are travelling slow enough that if there’s a collision, they are not going to kill, they’re not going to seriously injure.
“And we need to see just more availability for people to travel without needing to use a car in safety around the city.”
Last year in June, hundreds of people came together to protest the increasingly dangerous state of roads in Birmingham at the Kings Heath junction, the spot where 13-year-old Hope Fenell was riding her bike when she was struck by an HGV driver in 2011.
The protest was marked by emotionally charged people chanting “Shame on you” at drivers overtaking dangerously, speeding, changing lanes — all behaviour that lead to deaths on streets, Paul Manzotti from Better Streets for Birmingham told road.cc.
And just last week, a reporter at the Birmingham Mail decided to buck the depressing trend of constant negative press coverage around cyclists by criticising the general indifference that permeates British attitudes towards active travel and which views cycling fatalities as a “normal part of urban life”.
He asked “Where is the outrage?”, however readers only proceeded to respond to his call for improved cycling infrastructure by claiming that cyclists “think they own the road then suffer the consequences”, and demanding the introduction of cycling-specific licences, insurance, and mandatory helmets and hi-vis clothing.
Another cyclist has found themselves on the receiving end of a hefty bill for riding through the town centre, a council continuing to enforce a controversial cycling ban and warning that cyclists will be "rightly punished" and face "repercussions" if they "have not followed the rules".
The long-running saga in Grimsby concerns Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) that North East Lincolnshire Council introduced in 2019, and that have seen more than 1,000 fixed-penalty notices issued since then, the bulk of which have been for cycling on Victoria Street South and walking dogs along the main beach.
Cyclists riding on the pavement is the biggest danger to pedestrians pic.twitter.com/WKOb1lHqsv
— Yeah But Cyclists (@but_cyclists) July 16, 2024
As carbon monoxide rebreathers come under scrutiny for maybe violating WADA's code regulations for blood manipulation, cycling has already found the next big doping farce to muddy itself with. Presenting to you, the "balloon doping" scandal, where riders tie helium balloons to their jersey's back pockets and climb the world's most difficult climbs. What a sight that would be!
2026: Cycling collapses after "balloon doping" scandal https://t.co/g4Smj6JzxE
— Prof. Ian Walker (@ianwalker) July 18, 2024