He won the Saturday time trial ahead of the Dane Vingegaard, who virtually secured the overall lead in the race. “Just because we’re performing at such a high level, we have to defend ourselves. I don’t understand it,” added Van Aert, who took three of his team’s six stage wins and also took the points winner’s green jersey.
–
“We worked hard for it. Cycling has changed and I don’t like having to answer these questions all the time. They check us all year round, not only at the Tour but also in our homes. We just trained for it. If you look it didn’t come out of nowhere on our team, as it has improved over the years,” added the 27-year-old all-rounder Van Aert, a key supporter of the new Tour champion.
–
Vingegaard, who is two years younger, won two mountain stages this year and dethroned Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, who dominated the previous two years. He also assured journalists that his team could be trusted.
–
“We are absolutely clean, every one of us. None of us take anything illegal. I think we are so good because we have prepared very well. We have taken it to a new level of concentration in the high mountain environment. We are doing our best with material, diet and training. Our team he’s the best at this, that’s why you can trust us,” said Vingegaard before today’s ceremonial finish in Paris, who clocked a total of 3:34 minutes on defending champion Pogačar.
–
The world’s most famous race has not had a doping case since 2015, when Italian Luca Paolini tested positive for cocaine. Before him, the last positive test in 2012 was Luxembourg’s Fränk Schleck for a banned diuretic.
–
In the previous decade, however, the years 2006-2008 in particular were shadowed by doping suspicions and affairs. In 2007, Vingegaard’s compatriot Michael Rasmussen was eliminated from the race while in possession of the leader’s yellow jersey. His Rabobank team recalled him from the Tour and fired him for lying about his whereabouts and missing doping tests.
–
Dutch bank Rabobank pulled out of cycling in 2012. But the team continued under various sponsor names until renaming itself Jumbo-Visma in 2019.
—
