“In a few years we will know who will win this Tour” | Relief

First it was former cyclists, now it was journalists. Tadej Pogacar’s performance in this year’s Tour de France, which barring disaster will take him to the top of the Champs-Élysées podium for the third time in his career, continues to get people talking. Such was his dominance over his rivals – he was more than 5 minutes ahead of Jonas Vingegaard with two stages remaining – that the number of comments is growing rapidly. Some, without evidence, are even subject to condemnation.

“There was really no need for such an attack. This only increases the focus on Pogacar. If there is any speculation about his performance, it certainly won’t help.– explained Lance Armstrong, who was banned from the Tour de France due to doping, after one of the Slovenian’s starts this season, already having enough of an advantage over the Dane to keep his place.

“This is pure bluff, this is just a show of force. Pogacar is three minutes ahead, he doesn’t need to do that. He’s only doing that to piss off Vingegaard. It’s something to do with arrogance,” Tom Dumoulin had previously commented, although in this case he did not point to the doping suspicions that his level might have given rise to.

But there is a conversation, although for some it is getting out of hand. The broadcast in the Netherlands of the Tour stage that ended with the climb to the Plateau de Bay, where Tadej Pogacar once again showed his strength, included words that have caused much controversy among cycling fans in the country.

“Their performance is unbelievable. It’s proof that they keep finding new things,” noted journalist Jack van Gelder said during the broadcast of that stage. “I can’t run faster than doping runners. The human body has its limits.”

Van Gelder, a regular football commentator on the cycling programme in question, continued but did not finish. Van Gelder is a well-known figure in the country, to the point that he has starred on programmes such as The Masked Singer and made cameo appearances in some films.

His speech went further: “Apparently Pogacar has no boundaries, “He climbs four minutes faster than anyone in history, and the record was set by a runner who was caught doping.”– he insisted, referring to the fact that the ascent of the leader of the UAE Team Emirates to the aforementioned port was 3 minutes and 38 seconds faster than the 1998 film starring the late Marco Pantani.the year he achieved a Giro-Tour double. “Such performances are only possible with the help of doping, but time will tell. In a few years we will know who really won,” he concluded.

His words resonated so strongly with all the Tour spectators in the country with its great cycling tradition that the reaction was not long in coming. Former cyclist and now journalist-analyst Thijs Zonneveld was the most prompt. “Oh, Jack, go Gelder is now also a medical specialist who knows exactly the limits of the human body.” said. “It is entirely possible that football players are running twice as many kilometres as they did in the 1970s, or running much faster than they did ten years ago. “This is not a question of faith, this is not a religion. Before you shout such things, you have to demonstrate, justify and investigate,” he replied.