The 2023 men鈥檚 Tour de France wrapped up on Sunday, July 23, with the familiar sprint along the Champs-脡lys茅es in downtown Paris. Race winner Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark stood on the final podium, and like many Tour champs before him, thanked the fans.
These scenes occurred just 24 hours after another Tour de France tradition played out in the French media: bruised egos and accusations of doping. Only this year鈥檚 kerfuffle involved a different and extremely hilarious allegation: beer drinking! Come, let me take you inside a ridiculous final few days of the 2023 Tour.
As you may know, the first 15 stages of the 2023 Tour featured a two-man battle for the yellow jersey between defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Slovenia鈥檚 Tadej Pogacar, the Tour champ from 2020 and 2021. Then, during the individual time trial on stage 16, Vingegaard blew the race wide open and gained nearly two minutes on Pogacar. Vingegaard鈥檚 time advantage widened on stage 17, when an exhausted Pogacar was dropped on an early climb and effectively raised the white flag with four stages remaining.
Almost every Tour winner faces suspicion over doping: , , and did. Fielding questions about performance-enhancing drugs is modus operandi in the post-Lance world, and critics quickly voiced doubts over Vingegaard shortly after the time trial. I scanned the web to see if any French newspapers would jump on the story, and headlines began to trickle out the day after the time trial. On Wednesday, July 19, 尝鈥椭辩耻颈辫别 published a headline 鈥渇rom another planet,鈥 a not-so subtle cycling code for dirty. The next day, French newspaper聽Ouest France from teams in the race calling Vingegaard鈥檚 huge lead in the overall a 鈥渃limate of embarrassment.鈥 Vingegaard, like most Tour leaders since 2012, addressed questions of doping in his final few press conferences. He was diplomatic, telling reporters he was clean, before acknowledging that 鈥淚 understand that it’s hard to trust in cycling with the past there has been.鈥
L'Equipe today: "From another planet." 馃懡馃挍
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60)
Vingegaard鈥檚 Jumbo Visma team manager, Richard Plugge, also used every interview as an opportunity to push back on suspicion. Plugge, who rose to the highest position at the team after serving as its PR liaison decades ago, pointed out his team鈥檚 commitment to transparency in each rebuttal. During cycling鈥檚 infamous 鈥淓PO era鈥 two decades ago, Tour teams shooed media away from team hotels and training camps. Plugge told website Cyclingnews that various media had shadowed Jumbo Visma riders over the previous months, including a 尝鈥椭辩耻颈辫别 reporter. Netflix filmmakers were embedded with the team in 2022 and 2023, he said, as was a book author, who spent three years with the squad. Had the team been doping, media would have seen it, he said. 鈥淚 think also it鈥檚 the job and the responsibility of some journalists to look a little bit deeper into it rather than just spread around suspicion,鈥 Plugge said. 鈥淲e 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.鈥
As someone who has covered cycling for the last two decades, I can tell you that none of this felt particularly strange for the Tour de France鈥檚 media cycle.
And then Plugge took things a bit too far. In an 尝鈥椭辩耻颈辫别,聽Plugge said Jumbo Visma鈥檚 success was due, in part, to the team鈥檚聽fanatical commitment to the fine details of training and nutrition. None of the riders drank alcohol during the race, he said, before hurling a verbal atom bomb. 鈥淲e were with a French team at our hotel during the rest day. We could see riders drinking large beers,鈥 Plugge said. 鈥淎lcohol is poison, and when you鈥檙e tired, it makes you more tired.鈥
The Tour distributes hotel information to media, and it took little time for journalists to see that just one French squad had shared a hotel with Jumbo Visma on the rest day: French squad Groupama FDJ. Had it been any other French team, Plugge鈥檚 comments would have generated little more than a few goofy tweets. But Groupama FDJ is managed by Marc Madiot, cycling鈥檚 version of hothead Yankees skipper Billy Martin (see the clip below).
Any chance of getting some live footage of Marc Madiot?
— Graham Healy (@Healycycles)
And boy was Madiot pissed.
鈥淲ho does he think he is? Frankly, it’s an exceptionally vile attack on his part,鈥 鈥淟et him keep his mouth shut. I don鈥檛 intend to see him. I don’t care about him. I’m not going to go and see him. I’m angry. It’s pathetic. I don’t watch what he puts in his riders’ bowls.鈥
Please read Madiot鈥檚 quote again and let the acid sink in. Cycling is an infamously boring and buttoned-down sport from a media perspective. Athletes drone on and on about the 鈥渟ensations in their legs,鈥 and team managers rarely, if ever, talk trash. Madiot鈥檚 rebuttal is basically him reciting Rage Against the Machine lyrics in public. Madiot even clowned Jumbo Visma on social media.
— Mar_chan (@mar_chan501)
Madiot鈥檚 anger was due to the timing of Plugge鈥檚 quote鈥攖he verbal barb was rain on French cycling鈥檚 coming parade. The beer quote circulated the evening before Madiot鈥檚 star rider, Thibaud Pinot, raced for the final time over his hometown roads through the Vosges Mountains on the Tour鈥檚 20th stage. Pinot, 33, was France鈥檚 star rider during his prime, and he finished third at the 2013 Tour. Everybody knew that Pinot was going to attack on his familiar mountains, and the day was supposed to be a glorious moment for Pinot, Groupama FDJ, and Madiot. But rather than field questions over Pinot鈥檚 gilded spot in French cycling history, Madiot was peppered with inquiries about how much beer his riders drank each night during the Tour.
鈥淥n every rest day, we have a moment of conviviality between my riders and the management. The management drinks a beer, not necessarily the riders,鈥 Madiot fumed. 鈥淎nd even if they had drunk one, it wouldn鈥檛 have been fifty centileters (16 ounces). I was at the table, there was Perrier!鈥
THERE WAS PERRIER! Finally, we get to the golden quote of this entire saga, and some fascinating insight into the nutritional habits of French cyclists. Yes, they fuel themselves with fancy seltzer water you can buy by the pallet at Costco.
As for Vingegaard, cycling media cannot say for sure whether he is fueled by fizzy water and smart nutrition, or by the latest and greatest chemical developed to cheat sports. The current reporting鈥攁nd many signs within the sport鈥攑oint to the former being the case. But believing the Tour de France champion has always required a leap of faith for fans and journalists alike, due to the sport鈥檚 history.
One mystery has been solved, however. We know that Plugge鈥檚 comments鈥攁nd Madiot鈥檚 fiery rebuttal鈥攅arned Vingegaard and the Jumbo Visma team very little support from the French fans lining the road. During stage 20, Pinot surged from the peloton and rode through the mountains to a . Behind, Jumbo Visma and Vingegaard chased after him amid聽.