As Remco Evenepoel a little earlier in the afternoon, Tadej Pogacar was present at a press conference in Cavenago di Brianza on the eve of playing the Tour of Lombardy 2024, this Saturday. The Slovenian and world champion will aim for nothing other than a fourth consecutive crown in the Classic of Dead Leaves, just to conclude in style what will certainly remain as one of the greatest seasons in Cycling history. A feat which would make him enter a little further into the history of the 5th Monument of the year, only the legendary Italian Fausto Coppi having already managed the four in a row between 1946 and 1949. If the sporting aspect and the race itself were of course mentioned – although his new triumph leaves few doubts – lhe big favorite of the 118th edition of the Lombard event especially returned to doping and the suspicions that concern it. “The winner is always suspected of being a cheater…“, he declared in particular.
Video – Tadej Pogacar responded to suspicions of doping this Friday
“There is no trust… We hope that one day people will start believing in it again”
Guest to react to recent declarations of Christian Prudhomme – in an interview given to La Dépêche du Midito the question of whether he would be disappointed, surprised or disgusted if one day Tadej Pogacar was tested positive, the director of Tour de France indicated that “given the not-so-distant past of cycling, the question is not illegitimate” – the Slovenian, as is often the case, did not hide and gave an honest answer on the question of doping. “Cycling is a sport where people have, in the past, done everything they could to be the best they could be. They risked their lives and we don’t know it, but there are many runners today who are probably sick, who have mental or health problems because of what they did to their bodies in the past , 30 years ago. In my most honest and humble opinion, I think cycling is a sport that suffers greatly from this era, there is no confidence. We hope that one day people will start believing in it again.“.
The world champion has only one piece of advice to give to those who still doubt: “We must move forward“https://www.cyclismactu.net/.”The winner is always suspected of being a cheater but maybe in a few generations people will forget the past. Guys like Armstrong did what they did. From my personal experience I think that cycling sport is among the best sports. People want to be as healthy as possible, not the other way around just for performance. Cycling is a dangerous enough sport. We can’t risk having accidents or heart attacks. And for that we need to stay healthy. If we want to risk our health and our lives for years of our career and suffer the rest of our lives, that’s stupid. We never want to take risks and increase the chances of getting sick. But there are always people who are jealous, suspicious and there is nothing we can do about that.“, he concluded with fatalism.
