Sunday evening after the arrival of the 15th stage of the Giro, Jonathan Vaughters attacked Thibaut Pinot on Twitter. To everyone’s surprise, the Frenchman was then able to count on the intervention of… Lance Armstrong, who came to defend him or rather settle accounts with his compatriot.
The 15th stage of the Giro gave rise to an unimaginable scene. Not on the spot but on social networks. After Ben Healy crossed the line as the winner, Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of the EF Education-Easy Post team, whose colors the Irishman wears, did not content himself with congratulating his rider. He also sent a dart in the direction of… Thibaut Pinot, who had not yet asked for anything and who, it is true, had not hidden his annoyance on Friday at the top of Crans-Montana after a 13th stage which had seen him try many times to take the tangent, but without succeeding in unclinging the Colombian leech Cepeda, which had nevertheless refused to take the slightest relay.
“Proud to see that Ben Healy congratulated the winner and didn’t come crying in front of the media to explain that life is sometimes unfair. Nice attitude. Nice person. Handsome runner,” Healy’s American sporting director tweeted, adding a layer in the process after someone pointed out to him that he might have been brave enough to tag the French runner.
Pinot asks a question, and it’s… Lance Armstrong who answers
this is a sports beef screenshot for the history books pic.twitter.com/P8V1LKUbmX
— kate wagner (@derailleurkate) May 21, 2023
To which Vaughters retorted: “Not sure that Thibaut Pinot manages to read this through his tears. “Who are you”, then asked in English (“Who are you?”) the Franc-Comtois, without suspecting for a single moment that the answer to the question was… Lance Armstrong who was going to provide it, certainly in his own way. “A fucking clown. At least based on the 30+ years I’ve known him. “ Vaughters, who had nevertheless admitted to having doped, is indeed one of the ex-teammates of the fallen American champion who had contributed to his fall by testifying against him.
An attitude that Armstrong has obviously still not digested. Even if Pinot would probably have done without his intervention in this clash which was originally intended to be two. And stirred the post-stage on Sunday.
