Pogacar, Vingegaard hit out at ‘inhuman’ night-time doping tests at Tour de France

PLATEAU DE SOLAISON, July 20 — Professional riders and anti-doping testers were at loggerheads at the Tour de France after former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out following a night-time control.

Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar led the protests describing being woken up in the middle of the night for a doping test as “inhuman”.

The drama broke on Sunday morning with a report in Le Parisien newspaper about both Vingegaard and Pogacar – the two men who have dominated the Tour for the last six years – being tested in the night.

Vingegaard confirmed he had been awoken at 2:00 am while Pogacar said that testers had been to his hotel at 5:00 am.

Both said that their sleep had been disturbed.

Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Matteo Jorgenson said he was “furious”.

“This is a complete lack of respect for the riders,” he told reporters.

The International Testing Agency (ITA) was responsible for the controls and issued a statement defending its actions, insisting that it had to conduct night-time tests to ensure it operates an “effective” anti-doping programme to protect “the integrity of cycling races”.

It said that its “testing activities” were “subject to the safeguards established under the World Anti-Doping Code, the UCI Anti-Doping Rules and French law”.

It also denied that it had discarded “riders’ welfare, equity and fundamental rights”.

But the issue took on another dimension when Vingegaard crashed out with 20km left of Sunday’s 183.9km stage from Champagnole in the Jura region to Plateau de Solaison in the Alps.

‘It is ridiculous’

Cycling has a dark and murky history with doping but has significantly cleaned up its act over the last 15 years.

The days of looming suspicion over riders and whistleblowers revealing sordid details have been long left in the past.

The last Tour winner to be stripped of a victory was Spaniard Alberto Contador in 2010.

Lance Armstrong’s seven victories from 1999 to 2005 were erased from the record books while fellow American Floyd Landis was also stripped of his 2006 victory.

Dane Bjarne Riis and German Jan Ullrich admitted to doping in their respective 1996 and 1997 Tour wins, while suspicions remain over numerous other former Tour winners.

But the current generation race in a different, cleaner era.

Pogacar said that he was committed to demonstrating that the sport has changed.

“If this is necessary to still prove that we are riding clean... then I totally accept it,” he said.

But the peloton was still up in arms.

His UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Florian Vermeersch called the night-time testing “almost inhuman and insane”.

“People will say that we are complaining and whining, but it is ridiculous,” he said.

Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel was celebrating his first road stage victory at the Tour on Sunday but was still fuming about the testing.

“This is something we actually should and could not accept as athletes because everybody knows sleep is the only recovery moment that we have in the night,” he said.

“If that gets disturbed... this is the hardest and the biggest race in the world, it makes it even harder.”

For Richard Plugge, the managing director of Vingegaard’s Visma team, it is simply a necessary evil.

“We know this is possible. These are the rules,” he told Dutch cycling news platform Wielerflits.

“From one minute before the start of the Tour until the finish in Paris, checks can take place 24 hours a day.

“That is stated in the rules. So you know this can happen.

“The fact that it is happening is also a good sign.

“I keep saying it: because in this sport we do everything we can – much more than in many other sports – to ensure that cycling remains fair.” — AFP