Tadej Pogačar is predicted to proceed his dominance of the 2024 season at Il Lombardia on Saturday and will win a fourth consecutive version of the Italian monument and his twenty fifth victory of the season.
His dominance of the World Championships and his 100km assault once more sparked comparisons with Eddy Merckx. Yet the Slovenian’s dominance has additionally sparked unfounded suspicion and questions, simply as previously with different riders within the darkest period of the game.
While talking about his unbelievable 2024 season and Saturday’s Il Lombardia on Friday afternoon, two French video crews put inquiries to the UAE Team Emirates chief, one referring to a current response from Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
Regional French newspaper La Dépêche du Midi requested Prudhomme: If someday you discovered that he (Pogačar) was doping, would you be shocked, disenchanted, disgusted?
Prudhomme reportedly replied: “Given the previous of biking and never so distant previous, your query is just not illegitimate. I don’t have a solution.”
Pogačar didn’t totally perceive the query when Prudhomme’s feedback had been put to him however he gave a prolonged reply.
He ended by saying: “There are all the time people who find themselves jealous and suspicious and there is nothing I can do about it.”
The newest race content material, interviews, options, opinions and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
His ideas had been extra elaborate.
“Cycling is a sport the place previously, individuals had been doing all the things they may to their our bodies, to be higher, unknowing what it does to your well being, and so they had been risking their life,” he stated.
“Loads of guys that you do not even know, not even the winners, are in all probability now sick or have another well being issues or psychological issues due to what they had been doing to their our bodies previously 20 or 30 years.
“In my trustworthy opinion, my humble opinion. I feel biking suffered rather a lot from these years. There was no belief and it was as much as us the cyclists to regain the belief. But there’s nothing we are able to do. We simply race our personal race, and we hope that folks will begin to imagine us.
“You must have a winner and all the time a winner will get probably the most eyes on him that he is a cheater. Maybe in a number of generations, individuals will neglect concerning the previous, about Armstrong and these guys, that had been doing what they had been doing, and perhaps they’ll transfer on.
“From my private expertise, I feel biking is among the greatest sports activities […] the place individuals need to be extra wholesome and less unhealthy, only for the efficiency.
“We now realise that biking is a very harmful sport. Like with an accident along with your coronary heart, you can not push it over the restrict, it’s essential keep wholesome. And if you wish to danger your well being for a 10-year profession, it is a waste of your life and it may be silly.
Responding to a different query about suspicion of his dominance, Pogačar made a wider consideration.
“You see domination in all places. You see domination within the enterprise world, you see domination in tennis, in golf, within the NBA, in soccer,” he stated.
“In another sport, you see domination from groups and from particular person athletes. I feel there’s all the time domination for a number of years, a most of some years after which sooner or later, a brand new expertise comes alongside, a brand new hungrier man, a brand new and higher staff. There’s a technology change and there will probably be another person dominating. It’s like that in life.”
Cyclingnews will report Pogačar’s touch upon Il Lombardia in a separate story.