Arensman gives Ineos something to cheer about as doping cloud hangs
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retained the overall leader's yellow jersey as he took second place by beating chief rival Jonas Vingegaard in a two-man sprint finish, one minute 12 seconds behind Arensman, the first rider from the British outfit to win on the Tour in two years.
Ineos Grenadiers have been facing questions about one of their team carers, who is at the centre of allegations involving alleged message exchanges in 2012 with a doctor connected to the notorious Operation Aderlass doping scandal, which rocked the sporting world in 2019.
Bradley Wiggins won the Tour in 2012 with the team, which was then known as Team Sky before Chris Froome went on to win another four for the squad.
The team carer was seen at the beginning of the Tour in Lille but has not been sighted in recent days.
'I have no idea about this, you have to ask the management about this. I'm just focused on my job, doing my own thing,' Arensman told reporters.
Ineos Grenadiers were not immediately available for comment.
Although no formal charges have been brought, the development has cast a shadow over the team's Tour campaign.
'Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team is aware of recent media allegations relating to the 2012 season and a member of its staff. These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority,' the team said in a statement.
The team added that it had formally requested information from the International Testing Agency (ITA) and reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy regarding doping violations.
The ITA told Reuters it would not further comment on the matter.
Blood transfusions
Operation Aderlass, which began with a raid during the 2019 Nordic World Ski Championships in Austria, implicated athletes and medical personnel across several sports, including cycling.
The doctor at the centre of the case, Mark Schmidt, was later convicted and sentenced to prison for administering illegal blood transfusions.
On the Tour, defending champion Pogacar extended his lead over Dane Vingegaard in the general classification by six seconds to 4:13 at the end of the Pyrenean stage, where Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who had started the day in third place overall, abandoned.
The day belonged to Arensman, however, as the Dutchman went solo from the day's breakaway in the penultimate climb to the Col de Peyresourde (7.1 km at 7.8%) before his team car hit and knocked down a spectator amid the usual roadside chaos on the Tour.
Arensman never looked back and held firm on his way up to Superbagneres (12.4 km at 7.3%) as Vingegaard attacked several times in an attempt to drop Pogacar.
But the world champion did not flinch and easily beat his rival in the final metres to further cement his dominance.
'I can't really believe it. I got sick after the Giro, but I had a good preparation going into my first Tour. I had to be patient and wait for the mountains to try my luck. This is unbelievable, the way I did it today,' Arensman said.
'I had amazing legs and I'm in the shape of my life. I thought with Tadej and Jonas in the favourites group three minutes behind, I was not sure I had enough, but I held them off.'
The peloton, controlled by Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG, reduced the gap with the breakaway from four to just over two minutes, giving the sense that the Slovenian would go for the win.
But Arensman had other ideas and he went on his own in the Col de Peyresourde and never looked back - REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
UK police on alert for immigration protests near London this weekend
Police patrol during an anti-immigration protest, in London, Britain, October 26, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe LONDON (Reuters) -British police will have hundreds of officers on duty this weekend to deal with protests linked to immigration, a regional police chief said on Wednesday, amid worries over possible rioting. Ben-Julian Harrington said he was aware demonstrations were being advertised for Saturday and Sunday in Epping, in the county of Essex to London's northeast, after protests over the last week which resulted in violent disorder offences. "We'll have a robust policing operation. Essex is safe. You will have hundreds of officers on duty," Harrington, the Essex chief constable, told a press conference. The protests occurred outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 20 miles north of London, that has been used to house asylum seekers. Five men have been charged with incidents of violent disorder in recent days, after police made 10 arrests following damage to vehicles and protesters throwing projectiles that injured eight officers. The police alert follows nationwide rioting last summer when racist unrest involving far-right supporters broke out after false reports on social media that a suspect in the murder of three girls was a radical Islamist migrant. The anniversary of those murders in Southport is July 29. Essex Police's focus is on protecting communities while allowing peaceful protest to take place, Harrington said. The Epping hotel has become the focal point for some anti-immigration protesters and pro-immigration groups after an Ethiopian asylum seeker living there was charged with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. He denies the charges, according to a BBC report. The man had arrived in Britain by boat from northern Europe eight days before the alleged incident on July 7, the BBC said, adding he had been remanded in custody. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to stop thousands of migrants arriving in Britain via small boats, but is struggling to do so. Official data published earlier this month showed nearly 20,000 asylum seekers arrived on small boats in the first six months of the year, marking a record high for the period. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Mark Heinrich)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Cycling-War on hidden motors goes undercover
Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 17 - Bollene to Valence - Bollene, France - July 23, 2025 General view of riders in action during stage 17 REUTERS/Benoit Tessier BOLLENE, France (Reuters) -The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling. Once, inspectors relied on random X-rays and magnetic scans to catch offenders. Now, the UCI is borrowing tactics from law enforcement – building confidential sources, mapping risk profiles and monitoring bike changes in real time – to stay ahead in what officials call a technological arms race. Mechanical doping – riders using concealed motors – first gained attention in 2010 and led to the six-year ban of Belgium's Femke Van Den Driessche after a bluetooth-controlled motor was discovered in her seat tube at a cyclo-cross event. Since then, the UCI has expanded its detection arsenal, now employing daily checks of up to 60 bikes during the Tour de France. All bikes have passed the checks since the Tour started in Lille on July 5. "We have the ability... to go further with our examinations, whether that's a partial dismantlement of the bike to look into certain components, act upon suspicions, act upon information that we have," Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud, told Reuters on Wednesday. Raudenski, a former criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, took over in May last year and immediately pushed for a new approach. "Bike controls, it's something that I've always equated anytime that I've done speeches or done training, it's like throwing your hook out in the middle of a lake trying to catch fish," he said. "If you don't have a strategy, if you're not informed about how to catch fish, what time of day, what kind of fish, where you can catch fish." THINK LIKE A FRAUDSTER Part of that strategy is to think like the cheats. "My idea is to put myself in the shoes of a fraudster. How would I do this and how would I get away with it? And that's part of my background as a criminal investigator, to try to think about not what we know, but what we don't know," he said. The challenge is relentless innovation. "It's a bit of a technological arms race. Components are getting lighter, smaller. Easier to conceal, which is harder to detect," Raudenski said. "And so, trying to stay ahead of what's potentially possible is always a challenge." For Raudenski, the mission is clear: keep fans believing in the sport. "People still need to believe, at least from the technological fraud side, that they're not climbing a stage like yesterday, and people just immediately think, 'oh, well, they must be on a motor'," he said. "Knowing that our processes are in place, that we're conducting the controls that we're doing, that there is that insurance that the enforcement controls that we have in place, that doesn't happen at this level." (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
Malaysian Reserve
4 hours ago
- Malaysian Reserve
HK arrests 18-year-old for writing ‘seditious words' in bathroom
HONG KONG police arrested an 18-year-old on suspicion he left what they called 'seditious' messages in a bathroom, adding to a recent series of national security actions that signal authorities' continued efforts to curb dissent. The man is accused of being 'involved in writing seditious words in a commercial building toilet on three separate occasions,' the government said Wednesday. The content allegedly provoked hatred and disaffection against the government and incited others to defy the law. The move is the latest in a flurry of enforcement actions against perceived threats to the Chinese state in the former British colony. Hong Kong is seeking to burnish its status as a finance hub after its image took a hit from strict pandemic controls and clampdown on political freedoms. Earlier this month police arrested four men for allegedly advocating independence for the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. In June, local authorities took their first known joint operation with Beijing's security officers to investigate a case of alleged foreign collusion. Police also banned a Taiwanese video game that month for allegedly calling for armed revolution. In its Wednesday statement, the National Security Department of the police charged the man for carrying out 'with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,' a crime that's punishable by up to seven years of imprisonment on first conviction. The offense is defined in the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, which was fast-tracked into domestic law last year. It's been invoked in addition to the Beijing-imposed National Security Law of 2020, which authorities used to detain and imprison dozens of leading democracy activists. The Hong Kong government didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. –BLOOMBERG
