'I rode up the climb in an Uber' — 10-year-old Giro d'Italia cheating accusation re-examined

Ten years ago, Steven Kruijswijk was on course to win the Giro d'Italia. A catastrophic crash robbed him of the pink jersey in 2016. But earlier in that race, an unknown Russian had already denied him a stage win. Alexander Foliforov outsprinted the Dutchman in the uphill time trial to Alpe di Siusi. The result raised eyebrows at the time — including those of Jos van Emden, current Visma | Lease a Bike women's DS. Now, Foliforov has responded.

Kruijswijk had delivered a crucial blow the day before in stage fourteen. The LottoNL-Jumbo rider took the pink jersey and the stage win. At the stage fifteen uphill time trial he was outstanding again — putting time into all of his GC rivals. Only Foliforov, riding for the Pro-Continental team Gazprom-Rusvelo, proved faster. He beat Kruijswijk by just 0.16 seconds.

"I didn't expect to win or even finish in the top three," Foliforov told Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld, a full ten years on. "I thought: it would be cool to finish in the top twenty. If I rode top ten, I would be the happiest person in the world."

The result drew raised eyebrows, especially from Kruijswijk's teammate at the time, Jos van Emden. The time trial specialist said at the time: "At a certain point that Russian was more than half a minute down, then he was way ahead of Steven, and at the finish he lost a lot of time again. It is crystal clear that he was holding onto a team car."

Foliforov is well aware of the accusations. "Yes, of course I saw Jos's accusations. All my friends and acquaintances spammed me with publications containing his quotes. I have to say Jos did well. After ten years he has almost solved the mystery. Except — in reality I was not holding onto a team car."

So what is the truth? The Russian, who retired from cycling in 2018, responds to Van Emden's remarks with a deadpan joke. He was not hanging onto a car. "Instead, I rode the entire climb up in an Uber. I was planning to win by ten minutes, but the driver was late, so I only won by a fraction of a second."

"No, seriously: we had a good laugh about his comments with friends and colleagues. Everyone who has raced Grand Tours understands that holding onto a team car is impossible. There are spectators everywhere along the route, helicopters flying overhead and camera motorbikes all around. So no — I did not do it."

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