Cofidis' Guillaume Martin said he would not "stick his hand in the fire" to declare the current peloton clean in response to former professional riders who have questioned the credibility of high-level racing in the Tour de France.

The Frenchman, who finished 11th in the Tour and was part of the podium contenders until midway through, made the comments in an interview with Le Parisien, following remarks by Christophe Basson and Stéphane Oiro last week.

Basson, who was kicked out of the 1998 Tour de France by his peers for opposing doping, said (open in new tab), "Today, there are new obstacles with performances that seem extraordinary."

Meanwhile, Hui Lo, a former teammate of current UAE Team Emirates coach Mauro Gianetti, said (opens in new tab) that he "had the urge to vomit" while watching the Tour and retracted his 2008 comment that Gianetti was "tainted with doping." He refused to do so.

Martin said that the Tour de France winner is suspected of doping every year, adding that he has also read comments on social media about his own performance.

"Every year, the winners of the Tour are suspected," he told Le Parisien (open in new tab). This is the price to pay for the sport's past problems.

"You are not allowed to doubt yourself and say, 'I am 11th, but he or she is doubtful.' Otherwise, we would be too discouraged. I'm not going to stick my hand in the fire to say that the entire peloton is clean, though."

"Then you look at the social networks and there are even people who suspect me, even though they know exactly how I work. I can't do anything about the allegations. If Tadei Pogachar is innocent, it is terrible to be accused of that."

[16

Martin, whose 11th place was his best result in his four Tour participations to date, said that cycling has the problem of having many team managers and director Spoletiffs who worked during the sport's "darkest moments."

"One of the problems with our sport is that many of its leaders were in the driver's seat during its darkest moments. This is an embarrassment to its credibility. But at the same time, we have a second chance. We have the right to change and not be condemned for the rest of our lives.

"There is no clear ethical answer (as to whether we can work with them). If we feel the sincerity of a repentant person, we will say yes, but it is a matter of feeling."

"Tool recovers from everything; it has recovered from when it said COVID-19 would not take place. I believe in human optimism. Even new "dirty tricks" will not depress Tour."

Beyond the issues of doping and credibility, Martin said he was pleased that on stage 4, at Orciere Méret, Cofidis ended a 12-year stage draw at the Tour and eventually finished third behind Primoš Roglic.

The 27-year-old, France's best finisher in Paris, was happy to be one of the stars of the race, adding that the COVID-19 break helped prepare him, even if he could only see a small group capable of racing at the top level

"In a way, this Tour shows real progress that I didn't see in GC. Half of the races I was on the podium. I also attacked. I was a very high-level Tour actor."

"Being locked up allowed me to regenerate myself. I was fresher and did two camps at high altitude. This time around, about 15 riders came into the Tour in their best shape, and I'm 35 minutes out of 16th place."

Martin was the top Frenchman outside the top 10, and Julien Alaphilippe and Nance Peters won two races in France, but it was a relatively disappointing Tour for fans and riders in their own country.

He did not mention any Frenchman on the final podium in the future - Romain Bardet was the last in 2017 - but Pavel Sivakov, a young Ineos Grenadiers man who grew up in France and races under a Russian license, is the next French Tour winner

"It has been determined that the next French Tour winner will be Pavel Sivakov.

"I don't want to be definitive. Last year Julien Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot were the most beautiful, and now the worst in the world," he said.

"There are still good times left in my generation. Besides, it may be too early for the younger generation to come out on top, and I don't know if they have room to progress."

In 2019, we were told Egan Bernal could win eight races in the Tour. And now Pogachar is under pressure to confirm that. It will be different for him.

"And if he changes his nationality, as Pavel Sivakov suggested, the future French winner could be Russian."

.