“Carbon monoxide could explain the trajectory of riders we didn’t know about a year ago”: Romain Bardet says use of controversial rebreathing technique is “unsurprising” and claims Pogačar “is so superior it’s difficult to explain” + more on the live blog

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.”

> Residents claim “jumped-up, arrogant” cyclists will cause “carnage at the expense of pedestrians” as controversial cycling ban to finally be lifted on shopping street to “improve choice of routes”

After spending much of this year on the receiving end of scorn from cyclists critical of what appeared to be his lukewarm approach to active travel, Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has finally given us something to cheer about, as he launched a public consultation on his Active Travel Delivery Plan today.

According to the Department for Infrastructure, the Active Travel Delivery Plan sets out how Northern Ireland’s government will prioritise and deliver over 200km of high quality active travel infrastructure within both urban and rural settlements over the next decade.

The plan focuses on three key connection types for each area which the department says “will offer the greatest potential to maximise benefits for people, the environment, and society”: connections to local schools, connections to public transport, and connections to town centres.

“This plan showcases the Department’s ambitions for increasing active travel options in 42 settlements across the North, delivering a bold transformation for all of our communities,” Sinn Féin MLA O’Dowd said today at the launch of the plan in Craigavon.

“It will complement the existing Belfast Cycling Network Delivery Plan and the Strategic Plan for Greenways, providing our teams and local councils with a firm basis for the prioritisation and delivery of active travel over the next 10 years.

“Research has shown that over one third of our journeys are less than two miles long and two thirds are less than five miles. These shorter journeys offer an opportunity to choose a different mode of travel to the car and make small changes to our lifestyle, regardless of age or ability, by choosing to walk, wheel, or cycle.

“We want to create high quality and safe active travel infrastructure that will make a positive difference to your lives, so we need to understand how it could help you to choose active travel to make those shorter journeys, whether it be travelling to work or school, maybe to the local shops, to visit family and friends, or just for leisure and exercise.

“Active travel is also a key element of the Climate Change Act. It reduces our carbon footprint, improves air quality, we have less noise pollution, it reduces traffic congestion by decreasing the numbers of vehicles on our roads and it is also beneficial to our mental and physical wellbeing. 

> Students claim lack of car parking is harming their studies – but university tells them to try cycling to class

“I am fully committed to improving active travel opportunities and separate to these proposed schemes today I am pleased to announce that I have just commissioned the design of six signature Active Travel projects across the North and will be sharing the details on these in the coming weeks and months as they are developed.

“By launching this consultation today I am calling on the public to have their say on the future development of infrastructure projects in their local area. It is important that our neighbourhoods, towns and villages are designed to meet the needs of those who live there.

“People are at the heart of this plan because active travel is for everyone. Your journey matters, and by making little changes, and thinking about how we could travel differently, we can all make a big difference.”

> “If they can’t build cycle lanes, devolve bloody powers to us and we’ll do it”: Belfast Council slams Northern Ireland government’s “joke” delivery of cycling infrastructure – as just 2.8km of bike lanes installed in two years

Responding to the plan’s launch today, Cycling UK welcomed this apparent step forward for active travel in Northern Ireland – but warned that “the real test will be in the delivery”.

“It’s reassuring to see the Department for Infrastructure finally develop a long-term plan for active travel delivery across Northern Ireland,” Andrew McClean, Cycling UK’s Northern Ireland lead, said in a statement this afternoon.

“Crucially, the proposed plan highlights the importance of short journeys connecting people to schools, public transport and town centres – but the real test will be in the delivery.

“Northern Ireland lags far behind neighbouring nations when it comes to active travel, which is why this plan needs to be backed by a real sense of urgency. Only then can we open up cycling to more people and ensure everyone can benefit from this cleaner, more accessible and healthier transport option.”

> Transport Secretary wants end to “perverse half cycle lanes” and hints at long-term funding for cycling and walking

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all:

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Bikehub_Transit (@bikehub_transit)

No words… 

> Violent bikejackings force cyclists to avoid popular cycling path which has turned into “Wild West” with an “epidemic of joyriding”

Nope, still can’t say it looks any better.

Who says we don’t cover the most important cycling stories on the live blog?

Oh, by the way, Pogačar was rocking his new look at this week’s 75th annual Golden Rog Wheel awards, hosted in Ljubljana by the Rog Cycling Club, where young Tadej made his start in the racing world.

Unsurprisingly, Pogačar won the Golden Wheel for the best Slovenian male rider of 2024 – shock, I know – while his fiancée Urška Žigart and UAE U23 rider Gal Glivar won the women’s and best young rider categories, respectively.

Just what the Pogačar household needs – a few more trophies to find space for in the living room.

We’ve had the classic tufty look, the boyband blonde tints, and now we’ve got… I’m actually not sure what’s going on here – quick, where’s a Gen Z when you need them? 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by stepi_cutz🇧🇷 (@stepi_cutz)

So many questions…

Like why was a 12-year-old cutting his hair? Will the helmet tuft still work? And just… why?

Chalk that up as another one that’s hard to explain, Romain.