The manager of Groupama-FDJ, Marc Madiot, on Friday protested at the “shabby” statements of the boss of Jumbo-Visma who accuses the riders of the French team of “drinking big beers” during the Tour de France. “The beer trick is pathetic, how can you dare say something like that?” Madiot said. In an interview published Friday on the website of the newspaper L’Equipe, Richard Plugge defends himself from any doping practice in his team and ensures that the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard is even reluctant to “take paracetamol”.
The Dutchman also says: “We also look around us at what other people are doing. For example, we were with a French team at our hotel during the rest day (Monday, the day before the time trial, editor’s note). We saw runners drinking large beers. Alcohol is poison, and especially when you are already tired, you will be even more tired.
Plugge does not mention the Groupama-FDJ team but L’Equipe makes the connection. And it was the only French team to stay in the same hotel as Jumbo-Visma on Monday in Saint-Gervais, AFP noted. “It’s appallingly stupid. They weren’t at our table. A few members of the management drank a beer. But the runners were at Perrier”, developed Madiot, very reassembled.
“What does it mean ? That our runners aren’t serious, that they don’t train? I remind you that the next day, our eight riders all finished in the top 80 of the time trial. You have to stop saying nonsense, it’s pathetic, pathetic! What are they trying to hide?” he added. “We pay 180,000 euros to the ITA (International Testing Agency, in charge of anti-doping controls on the Tour France, editor’s note), we want results, that they do their job,” said the manager of Groupama-FDJ.
In his interview with the Team, Richard Plugge adds: “We, no one has drunk alcohol (…) We can open our doors, answer all questions. But you also have to show the other side. Because it also explains part of the differences, not only in our favour, but against others. The boss of the Dutch formation denies any doping in his team, while the overwhelming domination of Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France has reignited the fires of suspicion in a sport with a heavy past.
The Dane is 7:35 ahead of his runner-up in the general classification, Tadej Pogacar. Asked about the use of a “product, not banned, but whose benefits have not been discovered by certain teams”, Plugge answers: “No, we don’t have anything like that.”
He repeats that some riders in his team use ketones (controversial but not banned dietary supplement). “But it’s a supplement, a supplement like vitamin C or D that anyone can use, not a drug or anything like that.” As for Vingegaard, “ketones, Jonas refuses them, he doesn’t want them. Even a paracetamol, he does not like to take it, ”he adds.
