Tour de France: "We can only be surprised by such performances"

It only took two stages (the 16th Tuesday and the 17th Wednesday) in this 110th edition of the Tour de France to see Jonas Vingegaard destroy the hopes of Tadej Pogacar. During an explosive time trial between Pass-Combloux first and then at the end of an explosive ascent to the Col de la Loze, the Dane developed an impressive number of watts, panicking both the counters and the spectators. Many were moved by these extraordinary performances, casting doubt on their probity.

Cycling, hit many times by cases of doping, remains today one of the most controlled sports in the world. How in these conditions to analyze performances that raise so many questions? Attempt to answer with Stéphane Demorand, physiotherapist, food-health and micronutrition advisor and columnist for Le Point.

Le Point: Do you understand the suspicions surrounding the performances of the Tour de France leaders this year, in particular those of Jonas Vingegaard during the third week of competition?

Stéphane Demorand: Of course! Even if we must remain cautious in analyzing the performances of the Tour de France riders and be wary of the comparison with those of their elders who competed in the late 1990s, these are two different eras and a lot has changed. However, we can only be surprised by such performances and echo the words of Tour director Christian Prudhomme, who declared that it was not illegitimate to ask questions…

There are a number of variables to take into account to explain a performance, including those of the weather, that is to say the temperature or the wind, which makes it difficult to compare two climbs of the same pass. Technological progress, if it exists, however remains marginal, so the weight of the bikes has been fixed at 6.8 kg minimum since the beginning of the 2000s. On the margins there have been improvements in the friction resistance of the tires and some aerodynamic progress, nothing however explains such performances if we seek answers on the side of the equipment.

The physical preparation has also evolved, with a greater consideration of the nutrition of the riders, but we have not seen a revolution in recent years, yet the performances achieved on this Tour are far superior to those we have seen in the last ten editions; you have to go back to the EPO era in the late 1990s to find similar values.

During the 16th stage, Jonas Vingegaard explained that he went up to 380 watts. What does that mean ? What does this represent?

We talk a lot about watts during this Tour to explain the power developed by the riders. The reference value is the Standard Watt, which is the power developed by a 70 kg runner. The power developed by Jonas Vingegaard in Wednesday’s stage (the ascent of the Col de la Loze) was around 450 standard watts, which is colossal and comparable to the performance of Marco Pantani, who once tested positive for EPO.

Finally, if we refer to the power developed by Lance Armstrong on the climb of the Tourmalet, the latter delivered a power of 417 standard watts while Vingegaard and Pogacar respectively develop 429 and 428 standard watts, so they would beat Armstrong hands down. Finally, the last interesting figure, the standard watt average of the current Tour winner is 450 for the leader Vingegaard, who last year won the Tour with an average of 424. You have to go back to Miguel Indurain (455 standard watts in 1995) and Marco Pantani (446 standard watts in 1998) to find similar values. The comparison is puzzling.

Do you think we will reach a plateau in performance or will the timings continue to improve?

If we look at the performances of the winners of the Tour de France since the doping scandal at EPO and then after the period of hegemony of Lance Armstrong who was heavily condemned for doping, we see very strong disparities. Thus in 2006, Floyd Landis, winner of the edition, developed 392 standard watts, which was a floor since Indurain. After a stabilization of the performance of the winner of the Tour for a good ten years, we are witnessing with Pogacar first, then Vingegaard for a year, a dizzying increase in the performance of the leaders. While it’s hard to bet on the future, Jonas Vingegaard’s performance is unlikely to be surpassed in the future, at least in a regulatory fashion.