Thibaut Pinot has said he availed of an injection to treat an injury during the winter but insisted he would never have done it during the season.
He also said cycling continued to
operate “at two speeds”, adding his hopes that the UCI under a French president
would have banned the facility to take corticosteroids under TUE during the
season.
He was also critical of what he said
was a lack of dope testing during the Covid-19 pandemic and also questioned the
use of ketones, which are not banned, by pro riders.
"I had a lot of hope with David Lappartient and I believed it was sort of his thing,” Pinot told L'Equipe of the UCI president and the steps he might have taken relating to TUEs.
“They banned tramadol but it would have been good if they’d done the same with corticoids. I don’t understand that people race bikes on cortisone."
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He said if riders genuinely needed the substance when
they were not in a period of racing, he was OK with that. But he said riders
had “no business” racing in a period just after taking corticosteroids before
races.
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Pinot was in contention to win the Tour de France in the
latter stages in 2019 but a knee injury flared up and forced him out. At last
year’s Tour he crashed on the opening day and struggled from that point.
And while he then went on and started the Vuelta later in the season, he abandoned it and said he eventually had to avail of a TUE injection in November to aid his recovery from the lingering injury.
He said because he was truly out of competition, with a
long way to go until the 2021 season started, and because he was genuinely
injured, he decided to take an injection.
The impact of it was so positive for his body it
demonstrated to him the benefits reaped by riders more willing to having
injections during racing periods.
He also expressed his concern about ketones, saying he heard the drinks helped riders lose weight, which he pointed out was very significant for performance. He hoped younger riders would not be tempted to use them and said young riders were being contacted, unsolicited, via social media by people offering to sell the ketones.
“Why do riders continue to throw their bidons on the side of the road, but in contrast, with the small containers of ketones, they keep them hidden in their pockets?” he said.
“They say (ketones) also help you lose weight. The hardest thing on the bike is not riding for six or seven hours, but it’s losing weight while keeping your power and strength.”
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