{"id":792315,"date":"2026-07-10T07:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792315\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T07:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:22:11","slug":"we-recommend-that-anyone-who-links-pogacar-to-doping-take-dumoulins-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792315\/","title":{"rendered":"We recommend that anyone who links Pogacar to doping take Dumoulin\u2019s stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The subject everyone knew would come up after Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s raid over the Tourmalet: the D-word. Tom Dumoulin<\/a> delivered <\/a>a seamless explanation on De Avondetappe<\/a>, after fellow guest Leo Alkemade asked him for his thoughts on the supremacy of the Slovenian leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG.Dumoulin, no ordinary rider himself, explained the difference in much the same way he did after Poga\u010dar\u2019s first Tour de France victory in 2020. Back then, he described Poga\u010dar as \u201ca lumberjack on a bike who rode two minutes away from me in a time trial.\u201d This time, he came up with another comparison: \u201cPoga\u010dar rode up the Tourmalet at 25 kilometres per hour, while I never went faster than 20 kilometres per hour there.\u201d The Slovenian now sits roughly three minutes ahead<\/a> of his nearest challenger, Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, after six days of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar-3\"\/<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar on the Tourmalet.<\/p>\n

Dumoulin rejects insinuations \u2014 which, to be clear, are not really there \u2014 around Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are simply looking at a super talent,\u201d Dumoulin began, making his position clear from the start. \u201cAt the same time, I completely understand that people ask questions, especially given cycling\u2019s past. I understand why those questions come up. Of course, the cycling world has partly brought that on itself in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I absolutely do not want to go down the road of insinuations here,\u201d Dumoulin clarified. \u201cFirst and foremost, I am watching a cyclist I enjoy enormously. As I was trying to explain earlier with those images of the descents, he is simply a fantastically good rider. I hope everything is completely fair, and for now, that is also what we should assume.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"tadej-pogacar-4\"\/<\/p>\n

Tadej Pogacar is dominating the Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason or evidence whatsoever to suggest otherwise. In the past, that evidence and those signs did exist, but right now there really is nothing,\u201d Dumoulin continued in response to Alkemade. \u201cOf course, we should not all be naive either, but in a way it is also a compliment to him. That you are so good people immediately start thinking along those lines. Again: I understand the question, and I hope I have answered it as well as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in sport, we try to explain those rare super talents \u2014 the ones who come along once every so often \u2014 in our own human way. We try to explain why a Messi is so good, but in reality we simply do not understand it,\u201d Dumoulin compared. \u201cThat can sometimes create a bit of resistance, especially in the Netherlands. We do not understand it, but above all, we should enjoy it. Every now and then, someone comes along with that kind of enormous mega-talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs<\/a> – [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The subject everyone knew would come up after Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s raid over the Tourmalet: the D-word. Tom Dumoulin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,37490,5900,82,1422,109873,262636],"class_list":["post-792315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-doping","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tom-dumoulin","tag-tour-de-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}