Jonas Vingegaard claps back about doping after incredible climbing speeds
Yellow jersey was asked about some of the recent performances at Tour de France
The racing at the Tour de France has been incredible–notably the stunning duels between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar–but some are wondering if it’s a little too incredible.
After the phenomenal show of power on Stage 14, some journalists have asked if there is more than meets the eye. Even earlier in the TdF, during Stage 5, Vingegaard and Pogačar broke the 30-year-old record on the Tourmalet set by Tony Rominger and Zenon Jaskula.
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On Saturday’s climb up the Col de Joux Plane, they were on target to break Marco Pantani’s blazingly fast 1997 record time, until they began playing games and slowed down slightly.
Given the exceptional times, Vingegaard said he understood some are asking questions.
“To be honest, I fully understand the skepticism. We have to be skeptical because of what happened in the past,” the Dane said during an interview after the stage. “In that way I fully understand all the questions we get about it. The only thing I can say is that I am not taking anything, but to be honest I am happy there is a bit of skepticism about it.”
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When asked about the faster ascents, he was quick to respond.
“In that way, I fully understand all the questions we get about it. The only thing I can say is I’m not taking anything. We are going faster, quicker, maybe even quicker than back then. I think it’s a good thing,” Vingegaard said. “The food, the material, the training, everything is different.Once again, it’s always good to be skeptical about it, or to at least think about it.”
The Jumbo-Visma rider said he’s feeling good going into the final week.
“I’m always confident in myself, I believe in our plan, we still do and we still look forward to next week as well,” he said.