Tour leader Vingegaard welcomes scepticism about performances

SAINT GERVAIS, France : Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar have made such a huge impression in the Tour de France that, in a sport that was marred by doping scandals, doubts about their performances have arisen but Denmark's defending champion welcomes the scepticism.

Vingegaard and Slovenian Pogacar have been on their own planet, winning the last three editions of the Tour and taking the top two spots in 2021 and 2022, and this year their opponents have been left dumbfounded.

"How do I see them? From afar in the climbs," France's Guillaume Martin, who won the mountains classification at the 2020 Vuelta, said.

While Vingegaard only has a 10-second gap over Slovenian Pogacar after two weeks of racing, the Dane leads third-placed Carlos Rodriguez by a massive five minutes and 21 seconds.

Since the first two mountain stages in the Pyrenees, it became evident they would not have any rival for the title.

On Sunday, Pogacar and Vingegaard clocked 18:27 on the final climb, beating four-time Tour winner Chris Froome's record by 42 seconds.

On Saturday, they went faster than Marco Pantani, the 1998 Tour champion whose career was marred by doping allegations, in the first 10km of the ascent to the Col de Joux Plane.

"To be honest I fully understand the scepticism. We have to be sceptical, with what happened in the past, otherwise it would happen again," Vingegaard told a news conference after Sunday's 15th stage.

"So yes, I fully understand the questions we're getting about it (our performances)," said Vingegaard. "All I can say is I'm not taking anything but yes to be honest there is scepticism about us going fast and yes I think it's a good thing."

"And also something else, there is the food, the material, the training (that have