Doping controls wake Pogacar and Vingegaard in the early morning

The dream of the two main favorites of the Tour de France was interrupted in the early hours of Saturday to Sunday, on the eve of one of the toughest stages of the race. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), first and second in the general classification, were awakened by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the body that manages the UCI's anti-doping program, to undergo out-of-hours testing. The episode has generated discomfort among riders, teams, and rivals, who question the need to choose precisely the night to act.

The night anti-doping tests on Pogačar and Vingegaard outrage the Tour peloton

According to Le Parisien, Vingegaard was visited by agents around 2:00 AM at his hotel in Besançon, where the process lasted nearly 40 minutes. Pogačar was awakened three hours later, at 5:00 AM. Neither of them managed to fall back asleep before the stage start.

"I guess the ITA didn't let me sleep much", Vingegaard told Eurosport before the start of the stage. "I was sleeping very well, and someone knocked on my door at 2 AM, a big surprise for me. It's fine that they do tests, but when it affects sleep, I don't think it's that good." The Dane added: "I think it took me about 40 minutes to get back to my room, so it wasn't the best night. I still feel good, but it wasn't the best night and I can't change it, it's part of this. I hope I'm not the only one, because it has to be the same for everyone" 

Pogačar, for his part, recounted with a more resigned tone how he spent the hours after the test: "I slept four hours. I always go to bed late, so it was a shock for me, but I had a very calm and long morning, I couldn't fall back asleep, so I was relaxed listening to some old Eminem hits and making coffee. I'm loaded with caffeine and ready to start the day, but it definitely wasn't pleasant to be woken up in the middle of a sweet dream", he also explained to Eurosport.

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The Slovenian also wanted to make his stance clear regarding the work of the testers: "They come randomly in the mornings during the Tour and today they chose the night. I feel sorry for the guys who do the tests, because I imagine some riders get angry and upset with them, but it's not their fault, they're just doing their job."

The controversy was not limited to the two protagonists. Within the teams themselves, riders like Vermeersch and Jorgenson also expressed their discontent with the action, according to Tuttobiciweb. And the debate reached the third in the general classification, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe), who came to the defense of his rivals despite not being affected. "I was told it happened at two in the morning. It seems very strange to me, because according to the rules it is not allowed. It's annoying, but luckily it hasn't been a problem for me tonight. If it were true, it would be scandalous", the Belgian declared to Het Nieuwsblad, as reported by Tuttobiciweb. Evenepoel insisted that the usual times are different: "Normally the rule says that tests start from six in the morning, so two in the morning seems a bit exaggerated to me." 

Despite the widespread outrage, the ITA's actions comply with current regulations. The anti-doping regulations have allowed tests between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM since 2016, precisely to hinder practices like microdosing, through which small amounts of prohibited substances could be eliminated from the body before a conventional morning test.

The tests are not based on any specific suspicion about Pogačar or Vingegaard, but are part of the regular monitoring program that each day selects the stage winner, the overall leader, and an additional group of riders, either randomly or by prior intelligence.

Nonetheless, both UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike believe that interrupting their leaders' rest on the eve of a decisive stage can have a real impact on recovery, in a Tour that is now entering its most demanding phase.