The bottom line is that van der Poel and Philippsen almost certainly deliberately shot Degenkolb down in the finale and nobody commented on this appropriately or Degenkolb himself and his sporting director succinctly dismissed it the next day as a “racing accident” [3]! Interesting that Degenkolb described the situation quite differently immediately after the race. In the interview [4] you can literally feel how he is seething, that he is so emotionally under control after such an extreme almost six-hour cobblestone battle and expresses himself so skilfully and diplomatically deserves the utmost respect. How much “pain and suffering” did Alpecin-Deceuninck pay to Team DSM from the victory bonuses so that DSM did not lodge an appeal with the race jury? Anyone who has been in the scene long enough knows how things like this are organised.
Where are the officials who otherwise intervene and pretend to be important because of trivialities, as the example of Faulkner at the Strade Bianchi 2023 shows. During her impressive 30km solo, with which she ultimately finished on the podium, the US American had worn a state-of-the-art sensor to record metabolic parameters for the optimisation of training and race control, which had demonstrably been inactivated. Nevertheless, the UCI commissioners took this as an opportunity to deprive the racer of the deserved reward for her impressive competitive performance and subsequently disqualify her [5]. A joke in view of the fact that the UCI itself broadcasts masses of performance data live on TV through its co-operation with Velon [6]. What’s more, the UCI also tolerates technical innovations to improve performance, such as the automatic air pressure systems (Atmoz or Gravaa) at the Paris-Roubaix spectacle in 2023 [7]. It certainly doesn’t get any more hypocritical than that.
The grossly negligent abandonment of the racing line, as practised by Philipsen and van der Poel in Degenkolb’s crash, is immediately penalised with a warning or disqualification by the race committee at every funfair circuit race. With their inaction, the UCI commissaires at this year’s Paris-Roubaix are seamlessly continuing the lousy performance of the cycling protagonists, thus providing a mirror image of the ruthless elbow society that now accepts such behaviour as normal. And the writing servants and live commentators of the mainstream also remain silent about these characteristically, morally and ethically wrongdoings, just as cowardly as they have already done in the last three years of Corona injustice [8].
Another aspect that fits seamlessly into the hypocritical reporting is the fact that this year’s Paris-Roubaix edition was completed at an absolute average record speed of almost 47km/h [9]. This tops all the demonstrably massively manipulated performance data from the EPO era and the never-silent accusations of motor doping [10]. After all the findings from cycling’s dark past, this aspect is once again covered up. However, it is well worth taking a retrospective look to show how strongly the suspicion has been substantiated that the current generation is certainly not performing on mineral water, oatmeal and dextrorotatory apple rings. For example, the doping history of the father Adrie of this year’s Paris-Roubaix winner van der Poel is worth mentioning in order to understand the family spirit in which the offspring grew up. Adrie van der Poel was convicted of taking strychnine (rat poison to stimulate performance!) at the Henninger Turm race in 1983. In 1984, he was again positive for ephedrine at the Sicilian Week and was banned and fined [11].
The example of the infamous Dottore EPO (“Il Mythos”) Dr. shows that the ghosts of the past are still active. Michele Ferrari [12]. The sports doctor, who was banned for life, only resurfaced from supposed obscurity in 2020 and it is well known in Peleton that the “master” is still in demand and present despite all the pseudo-denials [13]. He even continues to run his own homepage with relevant information and contact options under the apt name 53×12 [14], an allusion to one of the largest chain translations in cycling, also known in German-speaking countries as “Kette Rechts”. A performance-physiological parameter, VAM [m/h], which indicates the maximum difference in altitude per hour that an athlete has mastered, can be found as a parameter in almost every modern evaluation software (such as STRAVA). At least they will know that the creator of this data value is the dubious Doctor Ferrari [15].
