Isabelle Gautheron, the French cycling team’s director, is keen to find out how the Brit’s success came about, saying she thought Team GB’s pedal power was down to ‘magic wheels’.
“They hide their wheels a lot. The ones for the bikes they race on are put in wheel covers at the finish. Do they really have magic wheels?”
“We are asking a lot of questions: how have they gained so many tenths of seconds? Have they found a new training process based on certain energy pathways? I am not talking about any illicit product, because anti-doping tests are so strong. Honestly, we are looking a lot at the kit they use.” she continued.
Casting shadows of doubt on Jessica Ennis, journalist Thierry Vautrat tweeted “Ennis? She’s a bit unreal. Wonder how she could win the 800m so easily, with no pain. Surprising.”
Last week French president Françoise Hollande indulged in a bit of confident banter, saying that London had “rolled out a red carpet for French athletes to win medals.”
The sour grapes spread on Twitter with the hashtag #GBJOfacts
Sports magazine L’Equipe noted that there was a lot of suggestions of “favouritism towards her majesty’s athletes” following the Super Saturday series of gold medal wins.
The Daily Telegraph reported that newspaper Le Monde, one of France’s most respected publications were “exasperated by the turn of events in the men’s pairs rowing final on Saturday, reinvented the rules of the Olympic sports in favour of representatives of her gracious majesty”.
