Four-time Tour de France stage winner Romain Bardet has claimed that the use of a controversial carbon monoxide rebreathing technique – which dominated discussion during the second week of this year’s Tour – is “not surprising” and that cycling teams and riders will always have a desire to “look elsewhere to seek competitive advantages”.
In a lengthy interview with Eurosport, the veteran French star also suggested that the advent of carbon monoxide use in the peloton – UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Israel-Premier Tech admitted in the summer to utilising the technique merely to test their riders’ blood levels – could explain the jump in form of certain riders over the past 18 months.
However, while Bardet admitted that, contrary to what some have claimed in recent years, that cycling’s reliance on medication has reduced over the course of his career, he nevertheless called on the UCI and the sport’s anti-doping authorities to clamp down on illegal or shady practices, arguing that the belief that riders and teams – and their “impeccable ethics” – will police themselves is “totally illusory”.
> What is carbon monoxide rebreathing and why is the entire Tour de France talking about it? Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard insist it's "nothing suspicious" and "just a simple test", but others are less convinced
During this year’s Tour de France, carbon monoxide filled the airwaves, after Escape Collective broke the news that top-level pros, namely riders on UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Israel-Premier Tech, have access to a carbon monoxide rebreather – an expensive piece of kit that allows for precise dosing of the gas into the lungs.
So why, we all asked, are the world’s leading cyclists – including the top two teams in the world, battling it out for the yellow jersey at the Tour – using such a controversial and dangerous method?
Well, carbon monoxide testing provides an accurate means of measuring haemoglobin (a protein that facilities the movement of oxygen in red blood cells). So, for example during an altitude camp, it can be used to track a rider’s progress over a block of training.
(ASO/Charly Lopez)
The practice does not break anti-doping rules and is a technique that has been around for decades in the worlds of science and medicine. Where things get murkier however (hey, it is cycling after all), is when we take into account the method’s potential for performance enhancing misuse.
Inhaling carbon monoxide – using the same device utilised for the tests carried out at UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike altitude camps – could assist riders’ bodies to produce more red blood cells, an act that, while not currently banned by WADA, one would assume is in conflict with the anti-doping authority’s stance against artificial manipulation of blood.
> “It’s not like we’re breathing exhaust pipes every day”: Tadej Pogačar confirms use of carbon monoxide rebreather test for altitude training
However, during this year’s Tour, which he was busy bending to his will, Tadej Pogačar dismissed the practice as a “pretty simple test” and even claimed he’d never completed it.
“It’s a test in altitude camp to see how you respond to altitude. You need to do this test, it’s like a two or three-minute-long test. You breathe into a balloon for one minute and then you see the haemoglobin mass, and then you need to repeat it two weeks after,” the Slovenian said.
“But I did just the first part of the test. I never did the second part because the girl who was supposed to come after two weeks didn't come. It’s not like we’re breathing exhaust pipes every day in the cars. It’s just a pretty simple test to see how you respond to altitude training.”
Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard also told Danish reporters that there was “nothing suspicious” about the controversial rebreathing technique.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Speaking to Eurosport this week, Bardet – who led this year’s Tour for a day after a sensational breakaway win alongside DSM teammate Frank van den Broek on the opening day in Rimini – claimed that he only learned of the use of carbon monoxide in the peloton through the press.
“We see the studies. Anything is possible. I have never heard of anything but at the same time, I would not be surprised,” the 34-year-old, who is set to retire following next June’s Critérium du Dauphiné, said.
“There is so much research being done with the idea of optimising performance. Ten years ago, there were lots of promises about altitude. Everyone was getting involved, it was a bit of a panacea. We know exactly where it can take us.
“It is not surprising that there are certain researchers, certain teams, certain cyclists who are looking elsewhere. There will always be the desire to seek competitive advantages.”
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
When asked about his own stance on these grey area techniques, the French climber said: “It is up to each rider to set their own personal standards of what seems ethical and fair in the search for the results, based on their values.
“It is like ketones, like many things, it is subject to interpretation. And unfortunately, since the rules are not clearly stated, this interpretation is left to the discretion of each person. And because we are taking part in an ultra-competitive sport where only victory counts, we should not be surprised by possible deviations.”
He continued: “Carbon monoxide could explain the trajectory of some people we didn’t know about a year, a year and a half ago, but it’s also a bit of an easy claim to make without looking at their trajectory.
“These processes are documented and it’s now up to the authorities to decide whether to ban them or not, to carry out checks. It’s totally futile, in such a competitive world with so many economic issues, to believe that it’s the goodwill and impeccable ethics of the riders and teams that will allow the sport to regulate itself healthily. It’s totally illusory.”
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
When asked about what many have described in recent years as the overt medicalisation of cycling – where a vast range of medicinal products, albeit legal ones, are used on a daily basis within teams – Bardet believes that progress has been made in that particular battle against cycling’s historic reliance on drugs of any kind.
“Culturally, I even find that cycling was in a much worse situation in terms of the use of medication when I arrived among the professionals than it is now,” he said.
“I believe that we must intensify the fight even more and have strong legal structures… to take positions which above all subject the riders and staff to what we ultimately want to do with sport.”
While Bardet is clear in his approach to cycling’s ongoing anti-doping efforts, he seems perplexed by one thing: the dominance of Tadej Pogačar.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
The 34-year-old was one of Chris Froome’s biggest rivals at the Tour, placing second and third behind the Brit at the 2016 and 2017 races respectively.
Such is the longevity of his career, he also attempted to challenge Pogačar during the Slovenian’s epic 2024 campaign, coming in as a distant best of the rest at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, finishing ninth at the Giro, 17th at Strade Bianche, winning a stage and wearing yellow at the Tour, and placing tenth at the worlds road race in Zurich – all races at which Pogačar simply destroyed the opposition.
> Was Tadej Pogačar’s staggeringly dominant 2024 the perfect season? We rank cycling’s greatest individual years, from Burton and Coppi to Vos and Pogačar
“I don’t know what to say. I’m ignoring it,” Bardet said of the world champion’s era-defining 2024 season.
“Honestly, it’s not the same weight category. I’m surprised but, at the same time, he has put together the immense potential that we saw in him.
“Apparently, he didn’t know how to train. Now, he knows. He is so superior... It’s difficult to explain. I don’t spend much time looking for explanations. Even being a contemporary and part of the peloton, we have the feeling of not really being one of his opponents.
“I was sure he would win, off the top of my head, Strade Bianche, the Grand Prix of Montreal, and the world championships. I was convinced that without any mechanical incident or anything for him, it was settled.
“Even at the Tour de France, if we saw UAE agitating at the head of the peloton from the first kilometres to control the formation of the breakaway, that he would win the stage behind. On the Giro, the same. It happened at least ten times this season.”
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Reflecting on the dominance of UAE and Visma, Bardet agreed that some riders are growing tired of the monopoly at the top of the sport.
“When you are the leader of a team, you have six guys working for you and you pay them at the end with a sixth or seventh place, you ask yourself questions. Are you up to par?
“This is the path that cycling is also heading towards, aggregating talent and the biggest salaries within a handful of teams. We are heading towards a cycling where competitive interest is greatly reduced.”
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26 comments
229 penalty points at the age of 26
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8yq063m96o
But Cyclists
A good quote from a lawyer also (posted over on Drivers and their problems before I saw yours) - essentially "ah, but those with lots of points will drive more carefully!"
You can kill someone in a car and be found guilty of careless driving and get a suspended sentence. Compared with
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6j80j62evo
The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to three fraud offences after a private prosecution by the Premier League and was jailed for three years and four months at Liverpool Crown Court.
Found this on blue sky social
(a platform that is actually useful)
Looks like XKCD, but apparently it's not. Here are some related ones, though.
https://xkcd.com/253/
https://xkcd.com/2728/
I would assume it's from his book: https://xkcd.com/how-to/
Which "features short guides on topics including tornado chasing, dog walking, and highway engineering". https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/02/how-to-chapter-list-and-introduction/
Ah! I think I have the book at home.
Spaghetti Junctions from around the world
American ones seem the craziest.
Glasgow tries to keep up, notice that they give you the chance to u-turn if you accidentally happen to find yourself heading east at Junction 21.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g7j406ywdo
man threatens to throw 9-year old girl into a canal because supposedly it is pedestrian-only....
It's certainly notable that these kinds of bullies will choose to pick on a 9-year old girl and never target dangerous, aggressive drivers for actual criminal offences.
I hope he gets to spend time in prison to see what it's like to be on the receiving end of bullying.
The Mail assure me it has nothing to do with cycle-hatred in the press.
but tomorrow they and the other shitrags masquerading as newspapers will return to screaming about cyclists, immigrants, benefit scroungers and homeless people, sportspeople, so-called celebrities...
Meanwhile that piece of trash needs some impromptu swimming lessons. Where are all the vigilante cyclists when you need one?
On the Célia Le Mouel story, if she had been hit by an SUV or truck thing instead of a small hatchback it may have been considerably worse.
Yeah, big man intimidating a woman and young child. Hopefully he does that to a full grown man who tells him to fuck off. Then again, I doubt he would do that because hes likely a miserable coward.
Not cyclists, not motorists, just c*nts. Its always just c*nts.
"He had big bulgy hazel eyes, a bald head and was huge."
Fits the stereotype
Also,
"He was eating a packet of Walkers cheese and onion crisps".
Monstrous!
The Police state they have some high visibility patrols. Personally, as a path user (on foot) I have never seen them. Also I wonder how effective they will be in catching someone who seems to be a opportunist bully. Perhaps an undercover female office on a bike would have more success?
I'm puzzled as to how they know that the canal pushing and other bullying incidents aren't connected. What they need to deploy are miniature camera enabled squirrels.
Well at least if the squirrels are miniature they'll be less of a threat to cyclists, as they throw themselves under (or into) the wheels...
You're not alone.
Over the years there have been several reports of "men of a certain age" getting wildly angry about cyclists on the canal path. Of course there are more than enough of those in Edinburgh for it to be a different one each time.
The canal path is not a good cycling venue - being not particularly wide, in high demand by pedestrians, not having good social safety. Obvious hazards abound e.g. collisions or falling in due to poor sight lines round bridges, the cobbled section over the aqueduct etc. (Most canal paths have some of these issues).
Yes - people do like flat and quiet places to cycle recreationally. But the fact it's listed as a "route" (e.g. on the Inner Tube map) reflects general poor provision for cycling around Edinburgh especially in the South *. Proper cycle provision (better than the Covid-era blocks and wands or shared bus lanes) along the line of the A70 or the Colinton Road (or both) would seem to be the missing part of the network here.
* I stay in the North, where the council seems to have been content to rest on its "active travel inheritance" (the former railways). At least - until it thinks it can repurpose them as "tram lines" (which will actually be used more as "light rail" since the tram won't run on roads / near "destinations" for the most part...)
Would it have killed the BBC to point out it's NCR 75. There will be people reading that story thinking 'oh yes it is annoying when cyclists on pathways'
The BBC really hates cyclists, so they're more than happy to miss out facts that support cycling.
Thank you! I was about to post, to ask whether or not the canal path in question is or is not 'pedestrians only'…
"The child and her mum wish to remain anonymous because they are fearful of the man who they believe lives locally" says the Beeb. So we have just pictured them and their bikes from behind.