Tour de France riders criticized the timing of surprise anti-doping controls after Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard revealed they were woken at 5 a.m. and 2 a.m. ahead of Sunday\u2019s decisive Alpine stage.<\/p>\n
Although anti-doping rules allow riders to be tested at any point during the Tour, the late-night visits from the ITA came between two of the Tour\u2019s hardest mountain stages, and disrupted sleep and recovery.<\/p>\n
Surprise tests at team hotels are more commonly carried out closer to 6 a.m., so the super-early wakeup calls triggered a strong backlash from many within the peloton.<\/p>\n
Visma-Lease a Bike rider Matteo Jorgenson said the timing crossed a line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asked to keep my opinion on this to myself, but this is a complete lack of respect for the riders,\u201d Jorgenson told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em>. \u201cWe are working hard on recovery. That is hugely important, especially between two of the toughest mountain rides in this Tour. And then you get woken up at 2 a.m. That makes me really angry.\u201d<\/p>\n Stage winners and leaders of the Tour\u2019s classification jerseys are routinely tested after each stage, but the International Testing Agency also conducts targeted, unannounced controls throughout the race.<\/p>\n Before the Tour started in Barcelona, ITA officials told Velo<\/em> that surprise tests would be a key part of this year\u2019s testing program.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG rider Florian Vermeersch said Tour race leader Poga\u010dar handled it well, but questioned why the controls came in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n \u201cTadej dealt well with it, but I find it almost inhumane and insane,\u201d Vermeersch told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em>. \u201cTo my knowledge, it is also the first time he has been woken up so early for this. People will say we complain and so on, but it\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Tadej only slept for five hours. Maybe it gives you energy.\u201d<\/p>\n The surprise controls came after Saturday\u2019s brutal stage across the Vosges and just hours before one of the Tour\u2019s most decisive mountain stages, finishing atop the HC Plateau de Solaison on Sunday.<\/p>\n Remco Evenepoel was not selected, but the Belgian star said he was stunned to learn that both Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard were woken up so early.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just told me that it happened at two o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d Evenepoel told Het Nieuwsblad<\/em>. \u201cThat\u2019s annoying, but luckily that wasn\u2019t my problem tonight. If it really were, it would be outrageous.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say to Jonas and Tadej: wake those men up at two o\u2019clock in the morning, too. Then they also feel what they are doing to us. It is not at all respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n Visma-Lease a Bike CEO Richard Plugge gave strong backing to the anti-doping program despite the uncommon early hour that disrupts his star rider.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently more teams have been visited,\u201d Plugge told Wielerflits<\/em>. \u201cIn any case, it is good that our sport is and remains on top of the anti-doping fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Plugge said the biggest concern was the impact on recovery two weeks into the Tour de France, especially after several teams have complained about the quality of team hotels as well as extreme heat that plagued the opening week.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of performance, it is not good to say the least,\u201d he said. \u201cThey wake you up and you are soon busy for half an hour to forty minutes afterwards. You don\u2019t want that during your night\u2019s sleep. That\u2019s never good.\u201d<\/p>\n He also stressed that teams and riders know the tests could be coming at any time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know this is possible. These are the rules. From one minute before the start of the Tour until the end in Paris, a check can take place 24 hours a day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat it happens 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Official from the ITA confirmed to Velo<\/em> that several riders were selected for surprised anti-doping controls before Sunday\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ITA can confirm that anti-doping controls were conducted overnight involving riders participating in the Tour de France,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n Here is the complete message shared with Velo<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201cThe ITA is conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders\u2019 rest and recovery. Due consideration has therefore been given to minimise as much as possible the impact testing activities have on riders. However, the ITA, on behalf of the UCI, has the responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the cycling anti-doping program and the integrity of cycling races.<\/p>\n \u201cAs such, effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, be capable to occur outside standard daytime hours. All testing activities conducted at the Tour de France and at any other international events, including decisions as to the specific timing of such tests, are carried out in accordance with the ITA\u2019s testing strategy and subject to the safeguards established under the World Anti-Doping Code, the UCI Anti-Doping Rules and French law, with due consideration for riders\u2019 welfare, equity and fundamental rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/riders-furious-over-2-a-m-anti-doping-controls-before-crucial-tour-de-france-mountain-stage\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285996176.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated July 19, 2026 11:49AM Tour de France riders criticized the timing of surprise anti-doping controls after Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard revealed they were woken at 5 a.m. and 2 a.m. ahead of Sunday\u2019s decisive Alpine stage. Although anti-doping rules allow riders to be tested at any point during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2051320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Inhumane and insane\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018That this happens is a good sign\u2019<\/h2>\n
ITA responds<\/h2>\n