A Nighttime Doping Test with Consequences

He said he did not want to “speculate” on the cause of his disastrous crash. And yet Vingegaard did nothing but issue a brief statement—fresh from the shower—in front of the team hotel “Ferme du Lac” in Thyez, thereby further fueling the heated debate over nighttime doping tests at the Tour de France.

Vingegaard had crashed on Sunday during the 15th stage and suffered a broken collarbone. The night before, he had been woken up by doping inspectors. Was the two-time Tour winner perhaps lacking concentration when the accident occurred at the roundabout? “I suppose you could say it certainly didn’t help. Whether that was the reason, I wouldn’t dare to speculate. It may well have played a role,” Vingegaard told the Danish broadcaster TV2.

"Shame," "Disrespectful"

In any case, there was a huge outcry among the sport’s stars. “Inhumane,” “a disgrace,” “disrespectful”—even the fiercest rivals, Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, expressed their solidarity with the unlucky rider. Even Lance Armstrong, the biggest doping offender in cycling history, spoke out. “They knocked on the door and woke him up in the middle of the Tour de France. Two in the morning—that’s a human rights issue. I’m speechless,” said the American on his podcast “The Move”—though he’s certainly not the best advocate for today’s generation.

Two-time Olympic champion Evenepoel had strong words to say after his stage victory. “All I can say is that it’s pretty disrespectful to wake the riders up in the middle of the night. Checks at two and five in the morning are something we as riders really can’t accept. It’s simply inhumane to rip us out of our sleep in the middle of the night,” said the Belgian, calling the incident a “disgrace.”

Evenepoel is calling on the riders' union, the CPA, to intervene. He says he won't put up with something like this. “To be honest: If that had happened to me, I’d send my team out tonight to wake up the people responsible at 3 a.m. as well and let them experience firsthand what it’s like—and take blood samples from them in the middle of the night.”

Nighttime checks also conducted on Pogacar

Evenepoel slept well on Saturday night. Vingegaard, however, had someone knock on his door at 2:00 a.m., and Tadej Pogacar had a visitor at 5:00 a.m. “After a night of ruined sleep, maybe that’s why. His Tour is ruined. It’s really sad,” said Pogacar. “Sleep is important. The body’s recovery is crucial. If you lose your concentration even a little bit... And that section where Jonas crashed was really dangerous.”

Doping tests generally take place between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Although nighttime tests have been possible for the past ten years, they are subject to stricter guidelines; for example, they are conducted when there are specific grounds for suspicion. The tests were conducted by representatives of the International Testing Agency (ITA). According to the Dutch Visma team, to which Vingegaard belongs, ITA officials conducted these tests on the instructions of or with the authorization of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).