Remco Evenepoel criticised late-night doping controls at the Tour de France as “inhuman” after two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race the day after being woken at 2am for a test.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Vingegaard was in second place going into Sunday’s stage 15 but abandoned the race for the first time in six participations as he misjudged an innocuous-seeming corner and crashed. He had never previously abandoned a Grand Tour.
The Dane sustained a broken collarbone and winced in pain as he was taken away in an ambulance, with his team confirming he will undergo surgery as a result.
Several riders and commentators speculated that his concentration could have been affected by being woken in the early hours of the morning for an unusually timed drug test.
Vingegaard was tested by officials at 2am on Sunday morning, while yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar was tested at 5am the same day, outside the usual windows used by the International Testing Agency (ITA).
The Tour de France race leader is tested after every stage and can be subjected to them at other times, while other riders can also be targeted for random tests during the race.
The sport’s governing body, the UCI, specifies in article 5.2 of its code that: “The UCI may require any Rider over whom it has Testing authority, who has not retired, including Riders serving a period of Ineligibility, to provide a Sample at any time and at any place."
“Unless the rider has identified a sixty minute testing window between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., or has otherwise consented to testing during that period, the UCI will not test a rider during that period unless it has a serious and specific suspicion that the Rider may be engaged in doping.”
Pogacar said he “totally accepts” the irregular tests “if this is necessary to prove that we are riding clean”, but described testing throughout this season as “very strange”.
The Slovenian, who is on course for a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title, speculated after stage 15 that the late-night wake-up and disturbed sleep could have affected Vingegaard’s concentration during the stage.
“If Jonas, if he was tested at 2am in the morning, he probably slept less than four hours, or his deep sleep was ruined. It ruined the night,” he said.
Stage 15 winner Evenepoel, who is now second overall following Vingegaard’s withdrawal, went a step further, saying: “It's pretty disrespectful. To be honest, [if] I had it, I would send my team to wake them [doping control officials] up to feel how it is.
“It's something inhuman, it's something that we should not accept as athletes. Everyone knows sleep is the only recovery moment we have, and if that gets disturbed... This is the hardest and the biggest race in the world. This is a shame that this happened, and I hope it doesn't happen any more in the future.”
For his part Vingegaard was typically measured as he spoke to Danish broadcaster TV2.
Referring to the doping test, he said: “It is clear that it has not done anything good for it, you could say. Whether that is the reason, I dare not speculate. It may well have done something. I should not be able to say that.
“I don't want to blame it on that, because it's a bicycle race, and crashes happen in bicycle races. So I don't dare answer that.”
He added: “We maybe came into this roundabout a little too fast, and then my front wheel just slips. I can't do anything. That's how cycling races are sometimes. It's just super annoying for us, to be honest.”
