In the summer of 2004, Lance Armstrong demonstrated to the world the powerful role he saw himself in cycling. Shortly before the end of the tour, Filippo Simeoni attacked on an insignificant flat stage, a driver who was far behind in the overall ranking and who had previously reported in court on the doping of the then Armstrong doctor Michele Ferrari. Armstrong was already wearing the yellow jersey, but he still pursued the Italian – so his attempt to break away was doomed to failure.
It was bullying in front of the camera, and then Armstrong made a clear pose: he pulled his mouth shut with an imaginary zipper. Better shut up, was Armstrong’s message – eight and a half years before he himself admitted his years of fraud.
Now on the current tour, the Slovenian Matej Mohoric showed this gesture: on Friday evening in Libourne, when he achieved his second stage win on this tour as a soloist. Mohoric is of course not the patron saint of the peloton, but he is a member of the Bahrain Victorious team whose hotel was searched by French police on Wednesday evening; the public prosecutor’s office in Marseille is investigating a doping suspicion. Better to shut up, that was obviously his message to those who are critically following Bahrain’s achievements this year.
After almost three weeks of dominance by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, 22, the Tour of France is currently completing its last weekend. On Saturday was the time trial, in which Pogacar took the last small hurdle on the way to his second tour victory, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard defended second place against the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz and the Belgian Wout Van Aert won the day.
And now the classic sprinter finale in Paris will follow on Sunday, in which Briton Mark Cavendish could soar to become the sole record holder in this category with the 35th Tour stage win of his career, ahead of Eddy Merckx and the German veteran André Greipel the last chance at his twelfth Has a stage win. After the season he ends his career, as he announced on Saturday.
But in addition to Pogacar’s dominance and Cavendish’s dream of a record, another big topic overshadowed these last days of the tour: the return of suspected doping to the peloton – and how to deal with it further. Because in Bahrain-Victorious this concerns just one of the strongest teams of the year and especially this tour: In addition to Mohoric, Dylan Teuns also won a stage, Wout Poels narrowly missed the mountain jersey, and the team ranking also went to the one who was supported with a lot of money from the Bahraini kingdom Team.
On Wednesday evening there was an hour-long raid, during which the police secured training data, but also computers and cell phones, according to information from the team. On Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office in Marseille confirmed that they had been investigating since July 3rd and that it was about “acquisition, transport, possession, importation of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method for use by an athlete without medical justification”. And since that day, the team’s representatives have been fighting against any suspicion.
In an initial conversation, team boss Milan Erzen made it clear that the police visit wasn’t a big deal. The Italian champion Sonny Colbrelli, who has been part of the team since it was founded in 2017, explained that it was almost due to the envy of others; the raid is the price for the good work. And on Friday, Mohoric followed up with his zipper gesture and a few serious allegations towards the authorities.
“I’m disappointed with the system. It’s not nice when the police stand in your room and rummage through your things. They even look at your private things, read the messages on your cell phone,” he said. He felt “like a criminal” and had nothing to hide.
But it was also interesting that Mohoric – like his Slovenian compatriot Pogacar as the bearer of the Maillot Jaune – argued that there was something good in the raid. It is part of it, they said, in order to show with such a control that everything is in order. As if a raid with so many police officers was something like a doping test.
In fact, the consequences of the process are likely to be a little more noticeable in the next few weeks. The protagonists around the Bahrain-Victorious team are likely to hope that the proceedings will take a similar course as in the previous year in a similar case around the French team Arkea-Samsic.
At that time there was also a search and even the arrest of two escorts during the tour, but after that the matter obviously silted up. At the same time, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office will hardly be able to afford a second time to make a major appearance on the tour that has no major consequences.