Marcel Kittel says cycling is still not clean: 'Sometimes it feels like no one is really looking anymore'

With the current case surrounding Oier Lazkano, cycling is facing its first high-profile doping issue in a long time. It has been years since a rider of such calibre found himself in serious trouble, but according to Marcel Kittel, we shouldn’t fool ourselves. The former top sprinter believes doping is still present in the peloton.

Kittel turned professional in 2011 after four years at Continental level. “It was a very different time compared to now,” he recalled on the Domestique Hotseat Podcast. “When I became a pro, all those doping revelations had already happened. Everyone knew about the systematic doping in teams, especially in the ’90s and the years after.”

The sport has since learned crucial lessons, and many believe it has recovered well. But those lessons must never be forgotten, the 37-year-old warns. “It’s necessary to hold a mirror up to the riders from then, but also to those now. You have to think about what you want, because there’s no sport where the problems were as clear and well known. We have to learn from it and become better for the future.”

According to Kittel, the sport today is shaped by its past. “It will always remain a topic — it’s not going away. But I absolutely think this was necessary. It gave the opportunity to talk about it and really to analyse where this came from."

Still, we have to be realistic, Kittel says. "I don’t believe that cycling is clean now," he states firmly. "Absolutely not. You would be very ignorant about the facts, There will always be people who are trying to cheat the system. We just have to be sure that we really safeguard what we have and the progress that we made and make sure that these are single cases and not a widespread doping system that we had in the 90s.”

The German does not think the issue is systemic: it is a form of opportunism. "Look at the budgets, how they have gone up, the salaries that riders can earn. I am not saying it is widespread, but that here are riders who see an opportunity and who see also an opportunity not to cheat someone, but to end up with a better life. And I think that is also a fact. It is probably in the first instance very human.”

With guys like Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel, we get to enjoy the best shows every week. But that sometimes makes fans forget what might be going on. "We are in a period, where cycling seems to be going very easy, with great stars. Sometimes it feels like no one is really looking anymore. But it's not up to fans to make sure that the system works. The journalists and the fans can say: we don't trust it."

The podcast cites Jonas Vingegaard's time trial at the 2023 Tour as an exceptional performance. Kittel does not see that as evidence of doping. "With Vingegaard, but also with what Pogacar is doing the whole year round: I do feel this is very exceptional, but we also sometimes underestimate where it comes from. But because we see more riders that are exceptionally good, it can also be an indication training, their planning, innovation; everything comes into place on such a day."