Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar has brushed off a query into the use of carbon monoxide rebreathers, a device reportedly employed by some WorldTour teams as a measurement tool for altitude training.
On Friday, Escape Collective reported that UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike and Israel-Premier Tech have been using carbon monoxide rebreathers but did not specify which riders are using them.
The article pointed out that these devices are not banned by WADA. The teams themselves confirmed that they have access to carbon monoxide rebreathers, but they stated that they use the technique exclusively for measurement purposes to optimise the benefits of altitude training.
On Monday, Jonas Vingegaard confirmed carbon monoxide rebreathers use in his team in an interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken, saying, “There is nothing suspicious about it.”
Pogačar himself brushed off the question when asked if he had heard of the rebreathers and if he had used them in a post-stage press conference on stage 16.
“When I heard this, I was thinking about the car exhaust, I don’t know. I don’t know about that much, so I have no comment [behind]. I don’t know what it is. I was always thinking about what goes out from the exhaust of a car,” Pogačar told reporters, adding laconically: “Maybe I’m just uneducated.”
Back out on the road, Pogačar had a relatively tranquil stage 16, the last flat day of the 2024 Tour de France, which proved, despite fears of crosswinds, to be relatively uneventful until the closing kilometres.
Although he was caught behind in a late crash when Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), he came through unscathed and in 37th place, even jokingly ‘sprinting’ for the line in Nimes with a teammate as he finished.
While Pogačar will be in his element in Wednesday’s return to the high mountains at Superdevoluy and again in the Alps on Friday and Saturday, he was asked if he had a message for the sprinters, whose chances of Tour de France success effectively ended at Nimes.
“They will need to survive, especially the last [stage 21] time trial,” Pogačar told reporters. “I hope organisers make a nice time limit in the last TT so sprinters that go all the way to Nice don’t need to go full gas on this one.
“It´s a bit of a shame, there is no sprint on the last day for them, today was more or less the last and it´s a shame that they will miss the Champs Elysées. But I hope they won´t abandon after today.”
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