Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Monday October 14, 2024 at 1:03 p.m.
Once again the target of accusations after his umpteenth demonstration on the Tour of Lombardy, Tadej Pogacar was defended by his team, the UAE Team Emirates, but also by several names in cycling.
Tadej Pogacar ended his season in style on Saturday, winning the Tour of Lombardy for the fourth consecutive year. An extraordinary year 2024, during which he crushed the competition, winning, among others, a third Tour de France and the Giro for his very first participation, but also a first world champion title, as well as the Tour de Catalonia or the Strade Bianche or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In Lombardy, he once again got the better of Remco Evenepoel, who could only recognize the superiority of the Slovenian afterwards. A superiority that continues to raise questions. “What is surprising is not that he wins, but that he is above the others with such a gap,” journalist Guillaume Di Grazia said on Eurosport. On social networks, “Pogi” is the target of numerous accusations, some notably evoking, without the slightest proof, mechanical doping.
“We have to ask ourselves questions about the whole peloton”
Accusations that we do not hear in the peloton, as assured by former rider Axel Merckx, today at the head of the American team Hagens Berman Jayco. “If we have to ask ourselves questions in relation to Pogacar, we have to ask ourselves questions in relation to the whole peloton, confided the Belgian, son of Eddy Axel Merckx, to RTBF. Terrific performances, there are has had the whole year It’s certain that Pogacar is the best runner in the world at the moment. We must not forget that we saw a great battle with Remco (Evenepoel) and (Jonas) Vingegaard, back to one. very high level after his fall”. Former runner and team director Cyrille Guimard goes further and attacks… rugby player Antoine Dupont, still extraordinary for his return with Stade Toulousain on Saturday against Clermont. “What is the difference between Pogacar and Dupont? Pogacar is necessarily doped, Dupont is an idol. Open the real files of doping in rugby”, wrote the “Druide” on X (ex-Twitter). Pogacar is also defended, unsurprisingly, by his manager at UAE Emirates, Joxean Matxin, who points out that “Tadej hasn’t had many days of racing this year. He stopped his 2023 season in October and only resumed At the Strade Bianche, five months later, before the Giro, he only took part in three or four races. And after the Tour, he stopped riding for almost two months. not too much, since it performs well almost every time. And this will still be the case in 2025.” Enough to silence the skeptics?
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