BAGNERES-DE-LUCHON, France :Thymen Arensman gave his Ineos-Grenadiers team something to cheer about as he won the 14th stage of the Tour de France after a superb solo ride in the 182.6-km (113-mile) mountain trek between Pau and Superbagneres on Saturday.
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey as he took second place by beating chief rival Jonas Vingegaard in a two-man sprint finish, one minute 12 seconds behind Arensman, the first rider from the British outfit to win on the Tour in two years.
Ineos Grenadiers have been facing questions about one of their team carers, who is at the centre of allegations involving alleged message exchanges in 2012 with a doctor connected to the notorious Operation Aderlass doping scandal, which rocked the sporting world in 2019.
Bradley Wiggins won the Tour in 2012 with the team, which was then known as Team Sky before Chris Froome went on to win another four for the squad.
Although no formal charges have been brought, the development has cast a shadow over the team’s Tour campaign, with the carer nowhere to be seen in recent days.
“Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team is aware of recent media allegations relating to the 2012 season and a member of its staff. These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority,” the team said in a statement.
The team added that it had formally requested information from the International Testing Agency (ITA) and reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy regarding doping violations.
The ITA told Reuters it would not further comment on the matter.
SOLO
Operation Aderlass, which began with a raid during the 2019 Nordic World Ski Championships in Austria, implicated athletes and medical personnel across several sports, including cycling.
The doctor at the centre of the case, Mark Schmidt, was later convicted and sentenced to prison for administering illegal blood transfusions.
On the Tour, defending champion Pogacar extended his lead over Dane Vingegaard in the general classification by six seconds to 4:13 at the end of the Pyrenean stage, where Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who had started the day in third place overall, abandoned.
The day belonged to Arensman, however, as the Dutchman went solo from the day’s breakaway in the penultimate climb to the Col de Peyresourde (7.1 km at 7.8 per cent) before his team car hit and knocked down a spectator amid the usual roadside chaos on the Tour.
Arensman never looked back and held firm on his way up to Superbagneres (12.4 km at 7.3 per cent) as Vingegaard attacked several times in an attempt to drop Pogacar.
But the world champion did not flinch and easily beat his rival in the final metres to further cement his dominance.
“I can’t really believe it. I got sick after the Giro, but I had a good preparation going into my first Tour. I had to be patient and wait for the mountains to try my luck. This is unbelievable, the way I did it today,” Arensman said.
“I had amazing legs and I’m in the shape of my life. I thought with Tadej and Jonas in the favourites group three minutes behind, I was not sure I had enough, but I held them off.”
The peloton, controlled by Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG, reduced the gap with the breakaway from four to just over two minutes, giving the sense that the Slovenian would go for the win.
But Arensman had other ideas and he went on his own in the Col de Peyresourde and never looked back.
