On June 15, Tom Dumoulin got off the bike during the seventh stage of Criterium Dauphiné and since then he has not competed again. His left knee injury, suffered in the Giro, has been complicated to the point of taking him away from the Yorkshire World Cup, where he will not be able to repeat that silver medal won a year ago in Innsbruck. From the Tyrolean city, precisely, good news for the Dutch does not come now. Two years after that memorable chrono in Milan, his triumph in the Tour of Italy 2017, seems stained by who was one of his gregarious confidence.

On Wednesday, the Innsbruck Prosecutor's Office accused Georg Preidler of "sports fraud" for his connection with the doping network uncovered in Operation Aderlass. Last March, Preidler had already confessed on his own account and detailed his relationship with Dr. Mark Schmidt. The Austrian cyclist, who has been running since 2018 at the FDJ, drew blood twice a year and used growth hormones. Today his career seems over. And along the way you can take the credibility of Dumoulin.

"I am amazed. I am proud of my triumph in the 2017 Giro and I will always be. But now I know that I could have had a partner who might not have run clean. It is something difficult to digest," said the Maastricht cyclist on Thursday, who shared a team with Preidler between 2013 and 2017.

"I wouldn't be surprised"

Of the same age, both shared the dreams of glory, although the Austrian always from that background of the faithful domestic. "I don't know if your doping case is true, but to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me," Dumoulin reveals now, bitterly. If found guilty, Preidler faces a penalty ranging from six months to five years in jail.

Pending the resolution of the prosecutor, Thomas Willam, Dumoulin's pink jersey in the 2017 Giro is now dotted with this case, where the Austrian cyclist Stefan Denifl is also immersed.

The other great leader of the platoon that looks at this case with concern is Thibaut Pinot, Preidler's partner in 2018 at the Groupama-FDJ. the Frenchman, who abandoned that turn in the last stage, was very critical of his gregariousness. "I didn't expect that at all, especially if it came from someone like him. It was really difficult. I even shed a tear, because for me this is high treason," he revealed in March to L'Equipe . Like Dumoulin, Pinot will not dispute the imminent Yorkshire World. His last day of competition dates back to July 26, when a muscle injury caused him to leave the Tour on the way to Tignes.

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