{"id":843211,"date":"2026-08-02T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/843211\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:18:10","slug":"david-lappartient-we-always-have-suspicion-in-cycling-probably-due-to-our-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/843211\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lappartient: We always have suspicion in cycling, probably due to our past"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The UCI president has been at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for the last two days. \ud83d\udcf8 ARC\/Sieber.<\/p>\n

Hey Subscribers,<\/p>\n

For the last month, I\u2019ve been watching as the story tally on my Substack had gradually increased. Then, yesterday we hit the 1,000 story mark.<\/p>\n

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported my Substack since the launch in June 2024 and those who have joined along the way. I never thought I\u2019d be 1,000 not out when I started, and all this race coverage and cycling transfer news is only possible because of all your amazing support.<\/p>\n

Thank you, and here\u2019s to another 1,000 stories.<\/p>\n

Daniel \ud83e\udef6<\/p>\n

With stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift starting in Aigle this morning, there was only one mission on my mind: find UCI President David Lappartient. I hadn\u2019t interviewed the Frenchman since my brief spell at VeloNews in 2022, and an awful lot has changed since then. <\/p>\n

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Lappartient and the governing body are embroiled in three legal disputes with teams; we\u2019ve seen the first wave of nighttime anti-doping tests at the men\u2019s Tour de France, and the planet is literally on fire, with this year\u2019s Tour rocked by high temperatures and wildfires that are still devastating parts of Europe.<\/p>\n

Twitter<\/a> \ud83d\udfe2 \u2014 Instagram<\/a> \ud83d\udd34 \u2014 Bluesky<\/a> \ud83d\udd35<\/p>\n

After a brief catch-up with Canyon SRAM and SD Worx at their respective team buses, I went to look for Lappartient, who had made the short trip from the UCI\u2019s headquarters just down the road. I almost gave up looking for him before finally spotting him by the podium wearing an IOC shirt rather than his standard-issue UCI one. With Jeremy Whittle from the Guardian, we approached Lappartient before his next set of ceremonial duties.<\/p>\n

We kicked off with the topic of climate change – starting with doping questions typically puts people on the back foot – and we raised the significance of the conditions at the Tour. This year there was even the threat of stages being cancelled, and some riders at the race even suggested that the Tour needed to be moved from its July slot, or at the very least for stages to be run at earlier times to avoid the worst of the heat.<\/p>\n