The Tour de France’s anti-doping crackdown reached at least six more teams Monday after controversial overnight tests involving Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard sparked concerns about riders’ sleep and recovery—and questions about the extent of doping suspicions.
The race leader is tested after every stage of the Tour, along with a targeted selection of other riders. Before the Tour, the ITA said it planned to conduct approximately 600 tests during the three week race.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Decathlon CMA CGM, Groupama-FDJ United, Picnic PostNL, Jayco-AlUla, and Bahrain Victorious were among the teams visited on Monday. Those tests took place within the standard testing window, which generally runs from 6am to 11pm, unlike the ones that woke Pogačar and Vingegaard the night before.
“I got four hours of sleep today,” Pogačar said on Sunday. “They were [at my door at] 5am in the morning. I always sleep late, it was a big shock for me to get four hours of sleep.”
Vingegaard questioned whether the early morning testing was being applied equally across all riders. “Of course it’s good that they test, but when it’s affecting performance and your sleep, I don’t think it’s so good,” Vingegaard said in an interview. “It has to be equal for everybody, I think. It’s not the nicest at 2am.”
