Yellow jersey holder Bradley Wiggins hit out angrily on Sunday at cynics who may believe his and Team Sky's impressive riding on the Tour de France could be down to doping.
The Briton, a three-time Olympic track champion, defended the race lead on the second day in the hills after coming under attack for the first time in Sunday's eighth stage to Porrentruy.
Before the first of two big time trials on Monday, a 41.5-kilometre race against the clock in Besancon, Wiggins is 10 seconds ahead of defending champion Cadel Evans with Italian Vincenzo Nibali at 16.
Sky's formidable performance on Stage 7 Saturday, when teammate Chris Froome won the stage and Wiggins took the race lead, led to some speculation that the team's efforts were not down to hard work alone.
But after the race Wiggins had a strong message for the team's detractors.
"I can't be doing with people like that," he said. "It justifies their own bone idleness ... because they can't ever imagine applying themselves to anything in their lives.
"And it's easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that ... rather than ... apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something."
Frenchman Thibaut Pinot of FDJ won the eighth stage, his maiden win on what is his debut Tour, after 157.5 kilometeres of racing over several short but steep climbs in the Swiss Jura that exacted a toll on the peloton.
Evans (BMC) finished second 26 seconds back, the Australian leading home a select group after a failed attempt to shake off Wiggins on the way to the last summit and on the 16 km descent to the finish.
Among the finishers with Evans was Nibali, Frank Schleck of Luxembourg and Belgian Jurgen van den Broeck.
"I think it was a lot harder than I expected it to be," Wiggins said.
"I was surprised at the size of the group over the last climb but we were there and we were present so it was good day for the team.
"The boys were incredible, they really marshalled the race fantastically and set us up to be able to go with them on the last climb. It was a tough day for a lot of people."
Wiggins thinks he is already in a tremendous position heading into the next couple of days.
"It's a fantastic position to be in after the first week and two tough days down," he said. "The time-trial [Monday] and then a rest day so it's certainly some of the toughest ones ticked off, that's for sure."
Pinot, a climbing specialist who at 22 years old is the youngest rider in this year's race, had pressured team manager Marc Madiot to take him to the three-week epic.
And despite starting the day with instructions to stay in the peloton, he seized his chance after teammate Jeremy Roy, who had been in an earlier breakaway, was reeled in but did plenty of the groundwork for him.
Pinot eventually went off on his own and caught Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff of Astana on the seventh and final climb of the day, the 3.7 km-long Col de la Croix.
He came over the summit with a small lead and rode hard on the 16 km descent to claim the first French win of this year's renewal.
"It's a dream come true," said Pinot, who is from the nearby Franche-Comte region.
"I just did the longest 10km of my life, I'll never forget it. I was quite scared when I heard the peloton had closed the gap to 50 seconds."
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