Clearly, Poels did not make any friends at Movistar during the Tour of Catalonia. The climber also returns to an ascent where he wanted to move back into the peloton of favorites and therefore tried to find his place behind Enric Mas, right next to Nairo Quintana who was placed in his teammate’s wheel. “I wasn’t close enough to push him,” he says, “but he elbowed me and I argued with him. I told him that he was taking tramadol again and that was why he was behaving so aggressively. »
The Colombian had tested positive twice for this substance in 2022, and disqualified from the Tour de France, but not suspended: the use of tramadol, a painkiller, was not then prohibited by the world anti-doping agency.
