Groupama-FDJ manager Marc Madiot has roundly rejected claims by his counterpart at Jumbo-Visma, Richard Plugge, that the riders from the French team had been seen drinking “big beers” on the second rest day of the Tour de France.
Plugge had made the accusations in an interview in LÉquipe, where he again defended his team from any kind of malpractice, insisting that race leader Jonas Vingegaard “did not even like taking paracetamol” and “refuses to use Ketones.”
The Dutch manager then proceeded to criticise an unnamed French team he had seen drinking “big beers” on the rest day in their hotel to highlight the difference between his and other teams at the Tour de France.
Only one other French squad, Groupama-FDJ, was staying in the same hotel on the second Tour de France rest day in the Alps.
“We look around us to see what the others do. For example, we were with a French team in our hotel on the rest day,” Plugge told L’Équipe. “We could see the riders drinking big beers.”
“Alcohol is poison, and when you are already tired, it’ll make you even more fatigued.”
“At the start of the last week of the Tour, which is the most important, you have to be careful what you eat and drink. Nobody [in our team] drinks alcohol, because that breaks you and even those who aren’t riders shouldn’t drink. We can open our doors, reply to all the questions, but you have to look at the other side as well. Because that explains part of the differences, not only in our favour, but also in the other [teams] detriment.”
Plugge has tried to defend Jumbo-Visma’s dominance at the Tour de France after Jonas Vingegaard may have pushed his performance to new heights in the key time trial stage.
“We open our doors, we are transparent, we do as much as we can. And yeah, we are always happy to answer all questions. So, ask us the questions and we will answer," he told Cyclingnews on Thursday.
“Apparently if you win in cycling, to the French you apparently never can do it right. Me, I would say, 'Come over, we can tell you everything.' I answer every question, like I do now."
True to character, Madiot reacted furiously to the claims about the beer-quaffing French riders, directly describing the accusations as “shabby.”
“How can somebody dare to say something like that,” Madiot fumed.
“They [the riders] weren’t at our dinner table. Other members of the team have drunk a beer. But the riders were on Perrier water.”
While agreeing that the team had a collective get-together on the rest day to raise team spirits, Madiot continued: “What is this comment getting at? That our riders aren’t serious, that they don’t train? I’d like to point out that the following day’s TT, I told our riders to go all out, our eight riders were all in the top 80. And the day after I had four riders in the break, so he can shut his mouth.”
“People have to stop saying whatever they want - it’s shabby, shabby!”
Warming to his point, Madiot added: “Who does he take himself for? I have my nutritionist right here, he can talk to you about what we do on our team. Frankly, it’s an extraordinary attack on his part.”
Madiot said he had no intention of going to talk through the accusation with Plugge.
“I don’t give a damn about what he says. I’m not going to lower myself to the point where I go see him," he said.
"In addition, I'm sure he's mad at me personally because we don't agree in the AIGCP (Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels). I’m angry - this is shabby, shabby, shabby…”
