Jonas Vingegaard may have pushed his performance to new heights by winning the Tour de France. Twenty-five years after the Festina incident that shattered his former illusions, the race winner's performance generally tends to be greeted with as much suspicion as surprise.

The unease whispered about some of the speed of the climb early in this year's competition was amplified into more open skepticism in the third week, when Vingegaard turned a close race with Tadei Pogachar into a big parade.

For example, the morning after Vingegaard's decisive victory in the time trial in Combreux, the front page of L'Équipe magazine noted that his run was "from another planet." On Thursday, Ouest France spoke of a "climate of bewilderment" at the Tour, quoting various unnamed sources in the peloton who said they were discouraged before Vingegaard's crushing victory.

At a press conference in Courchevel on Wednesday evening, Vingegaard acknowledged the skepticism that will inevitably greet the Tour's maillot jaune.

Before the start of stage 16 in Moutier on Thursday, Cycling News posed the same question to Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plagge. The Dutch manager claimed that he had already demonstrated his commitment to doping-free racing by allowing various film crews and reporters to accompany the team over the last few years.

"We can do more," we have two filming teams, Netflix and Amazon, with us 24/7. Last year we brought a journalist from Recipe magazine to training camp for a few days. We are always open, and I think journalists in particular should put a little more effort [into analyzing] what is going on." [I think it is the job and responsibility of journalists not only to spread suspicions, but also to look a little deeper. Of course, the sport has a long history, but according to WADA, we used to be the worst kid in our class and now we are in the top three. We keep our doors open, we are transparent, and we do the best we can. We are always happy to answer questions. So, ask me a question and I'll answer it."

Plug, formerly a journalist and press officer, took over the current management of Jumbo Visma in the winter of 2012 after Rabobank withdrew its long-running sponsorship due to the doping culture that existed on the team and throughout the sport.

In the opening months of the 2013 season, the team had no title sponsor and instead competed under the name "Blanco." The team was languishing at the bottom of the World Tour at the start of the season, but has enjoyed remarkable success over the past five years, winning at least one Grand Tour per season

.

In the 2022 Tour, Jumbo Visma won the overall, the green jersey, and six stage victories; in 2023 Primoš Roglic won the Giro d'Italia, and Vingegaard has already won the Iturià Basque and Criterium du Dauphiné He has already won the Tour de France and is on the verge of winning his second consecutive Tour de France.

"I wanted to start with a clean slate. I wanted to start with a clean slate, to build a new team that no one had ever done before, to leave the past behind. That's why we opened our doors. We are the only team that has been doing documentaries and 24/7 broadcasts for many years." NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, has produced two major films about us. That's the only way we could do it.

"You ask us what more we can do for you. Ask us as many questions as you like. We are opening our doors and being as transparent as possible. We ask, what more can we do?"

Over the past few years, teams and riders have moved to release power data to prove their legitimacy. Ten years ago, for example, Team Sky published an excerpt of Chris Froome's climb count in L'Équipe, but the subsequent publication of the analysis did little to shift the polemic surrounding the credibility of his performance. Plug suggested that Vingegaard's true power numbers were already virtually public.

"As for the data, you know a lot of people are already on Twitter, and if you follow these people, you already know what's going on," Plugge said. 'We can share, but they already share a lot. For us, it's perfectly fine [AD journalist] Thijs Zonneveld has told us several times. We showed him all the data we had and he looked into it. It was a pretty big story in the Netherlands, so you can find out more by asking him."

Pragge, of course, would know that many elements of the case for defense have already been maliciously offered by corrupt champions of the past, including the claim that his riders are "individually tested over 100 times a year."

He also knows from his long involvement in the game that no amount of Netflix documentaries or power analysis can dispel skepticism about a dominant performance like Vingegaard's. But he insisted that the climate of suspicion will not dampen the celebration of Jumbo-Visma's success.

"That's not true. We know what we do and that's why we are happy with this result. 'The French in particular are always skeptical. If not us, then Pogachar or whoever wins, we will get it. If you win in cycling, apparently you can't do the right thing for the French. I would say, 'Come over here and we can talk about anything. ' Like now, I would answer any question."

Perhaps Plug feels that Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma can never do enough in the eyes of some to prove they are racing clean. However, the reaction to their dominance in this Tour suggests that they are still trying to do something about it.