Tour de France rivals Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard both confirmed they were woken during the night by anti-doping controllers just hours before Sunday\u2019s decisive Alpine mountain stage.<\/p>\n
The International Testing Agency has stepped up testing throughout the 2026 Tour and pledged to conduct more than 600 anti-doping controls, including surprise visits to team hotels before and after stages.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard said officials knocked on his hotel room door at 2 a.m. and disrupted his sleep before one of the Tour\u2019s most important climbing stages ending atop the HC Plateau de Solaison.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ITA didn\u2019t allow me to sleep much. I was sleeping very well, but then somebody knocked on my door at 2 a.m.,\u201d Vingegaard told Eurosport<\/em> at the start of stage 15 Sunday. \u201cIt was a big surprise for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dane questioned whether overnight testing should interfere with riders\u2019 recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good that they test, but when it\u2019s affecting your performance and your sleep, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s so good. In the end, hopefully I am not the only one, because it has to be equal for everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the nicest at two o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar also confirmed he was also tested overnight, though a few hours later.<\/p>\n \u201cI got four hours of sleep today. Not (at) 2:00 am in the morning, because they were [there at] 5:00 in the morning,\u201d Poga\u010dar told reporters at the start.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I always go to sleep late. It was a big shock for me also to get four hours of sleep today. But I had a very cool long morning. I couldn\u2019t fall back to sleep, so I was chilling, listening to some old Eminem hits, and making coffees, so I over-caffeinated,\u201d Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was ready to start the day, but it was definitely not nice to wake up in the middle of sweet dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar is routinely tested after stage victories and while leading the race, but said surprise hotel visits are also part of the ITA\u2019s program.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd also, they come randomly in the mornings through the Tour,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd today they chose nighttime.\u201d<\/p>\n The ITA has said it will conduct more than 600 anti-doping controls during this year\u2019s Tour, including unannounced visits to team hotels. Such overnight controls are rarely discussed publicly so Sunday\u2019s comments were a rare glimpse into the testing program.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if other riders were tested.\u00a0Velo<\/em> has contacted the ITA for comment.<\/p>\n Vingegaard said the testing process kept him away from his room for about 40 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me about 40 minutes before I was back in my room,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was not the best night, I still feel OK, it\u2019s not the best night. I cannot change it and that\u2019s a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The two-time Tour champion began Sunday\u2019s stage 4:30 behind Poga\u010dar in the overall standings but insisted his goal remains the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n \u201cI will do absolutely everything I can do to win this race. I am not here for a second place or a third, I am here to try to win it, that\u2019s what I am going to try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/jonas-vingegaard-woken-at-2-a-m-for-surprise-doping-test-tour-de-france\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285578740-2.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated July 19, 2026 08:10AM Tour de France rivals Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard both confirmed they were woken during the night by anti-doping controllers just hours before Sunday\u2019s decisive Alpine mountain stage. The International Testing Agency has stepped up testing throughout the 2026 Tour and pledged to conduct more […]<\/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-2051322","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\/2051322","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=2051322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ITA promises more surprise controls in 2026 Tour<\/h2>\n