Overnight doping tests at this year’s Tour de France have sparked debates about athlete health, recovery, and the credibility of professional cycling, a sport haunted by its drug-ridden past.
Jonathan Vaughters, a former professional cyclist turned CEO and team manager of EF Education-EasyPost, believes occasional overnight testing is a necessary deterrent, even if they disrupt a rider’s sleep.
Vaughters has some expertise in the topic, as he has testified to his own illegal drug use during his professional cycling career. Earlier this week, as much of the peloton lamented the late-night tests of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, Vaughters defended them. “If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama,” he wrote in a tweet.
He spoke to Front Office Sports about why testing riders at 2 am can catch illegal microdosing, whether cycling’s anti-doping system helps or harms its reputation, and how emerging weight loss drugs could shift the conversation.
This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
