Tour de France – Doping – Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert and Jumbo Visma face suspicion

Then it’s not just Vingegaard. Around the Scandinavian, the entire Jumbo-Visma team impressed for three weeks. Starting with Wout van Aert, the other “monster” of this 109th edition, on the attack almost every day, winner of three stages, colossal rider, frenetic attacker, first-class sprinter and amazing climber, capable of crack Tadej Pogacar in person at Hautacam. Even more than the yellow jersey, it is therefore the whole Jumbo team which is in the sights of the skeptics.

Saturday, in Rocamadour, where Van Aert and Vingegaard scored twice in the time trial, the yellow jersey and its green sidekick were therefore entitled to it. “We are completely clean, each one of us in the team, promised the one who will officially win this Tour 2022 on Sunday. I can guarantee everyone, nobody takes anything illegal.”

For him, the superiority of the Dutch team is explained by the intrinsic quality of the individuals who compose it, and even more by the work provided. “Why were we so good? It is thanks to our preparationsays Jonas Vingegaard. We do courses at altitude like no one does. We do everything we can in terms of equipment, training, nutrition. We are the best team for the preparation and that’s why you have to trust usNot sure that’s enough to convince skeptics, though.

Wout van Aert, he was much more virulent than the yellow jersey. “I don’t even want to answer, it’s a shitty questionasserted the Belgian champion. It comes back every time someone wins. Because we are efficient, should we defend ourselves? I don’t get it. We worked so hard for this. Cycling has changed, we pass checks all the time, all year round, we come to our house, to our house. We’re just training. And when you look at how the team has progressed in recent years, it’s not like we came from nowhere.”

Friday, after his victory in Cahors, Christophe Laporte had already had to answer, not on the doping itself, but on the omnipotence of the Jumbo formation, switched to Sky mode this year. The Dutch team now has six stage victories (three for Van Aert, two for Vingegaard, one for Laporte), the yellow jersey, the green jersey and the polka dot jersey. So, Jumbo, too much is too much?

“It makes me laugh to hear things like thatretorted the Frenchman. All the riders work hard, we do our best in each stage to try to win. When you have a rider like Wout van Aert in the team, it helps a lot, he can win a large part of the stages in the Tour de France. We also have one of the best climbers in the world, Jonas. No runner came to tell us: ‘Leave us some’” When a team wins, it gets people talking. When it crushes everything, it gets people talking.