The knock came just after two in the morning. In a hotel room in Besançon, Jonas Vingegaard, the Dane who has finished second at the Tour de France twice and trails the yellow jersey by four and a half minutes, was pulled from a deep sleep by anti-doping controllers from the International Testing Agency. Three hours later and roughly 130 kilometres to the south, in Danjoutin, the same agency knocked again — this time on the door of the man wearing the maillot jaune.
By sunrise on Sunday, July 19, the two rivals in the 113th Tour de France had been tested at the two most extreme ends of the legal night-control window, hours before the start of a 184-kilometre mountain stage that ends atop the hors-catégorie Plateau de Solaison, an 11.3-kilometre ascent at an average gradient of nine per cent. The control, not the climb, was the story of the morning.
The 5 a.m. wake-up
Pogacar had gone to bed late, as is his habit, after a long transfer from the Markstein where he had won his fourth stage of this Tour the previous afternoon. He woke four hours later to a chapped door. I slept only four hours. It was at five in the morning. I always go to bed late. It was a big shock for me to have only four hours of sleep,
the Slovenian said in the mixed zone at Champagnole, visibly in very good humour despite the short night.
He could not get back to sleep. I was chilling, listening to some old Eminem hits, and making coffees. I arrive over-caffeinated this morning,
he said. He was quick to add that, as the race leader, he is tested at the end of every stage and at random points in the morning — and that the controllers themselves were only doing their job. I'm also sorry for the guys who come to control. Because I imagine some riders get angry at them, but it's not their fault. It's the fault of the guys who send them. The guys who control us are just doing their job.
For Vingegaard, the wake-up came earlier still. I was sleeping very well, then somebody knocked on my door at two in the morning,
the Dane said. I thought they didn't have the right, but apparently they do. It took me about forty minutes before I was back in my room. I still feel OK but it was not the best night. I cannot change it.
His verdict on the timing was sharp. I think it's good that they test us, but not when it affects performance or your sleep. Testing at two in the morning, that pushes the limits in my opinion.
The legal framework behind the knock
What made the dawn raid unusual was not the act of testing itself, but the hour. The ADAMS software used by the World Anti-Doping Agency to allocate doping controls only authorises routine testing between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. Anything outside that window in France requires a different justification.
A 2016 ordinance allows anti-doping operations at an athlete's home or accommodation between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., provided the rider belongs to a registered international target group or is competing in an international event. Both Pogacar and Vingegaard clearly qualify. But the law goes further. Article L232-14-1 of the French Sports Code specifies that a control carried out between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. — the narrowest band of the night — must rest on serious and consistent suspicions that the rider has breached, or is about to breach, anti-doping rules, combined with a perceived risk that evidence could disappear.
| Window | What the law requires |
|---|---|
| 05:00 – 23:00 | Routine testing through the WADA ADAMS allocation system. |
| 23:00 – 06:00 | Permitted under a 2016 ordinance for riders in a registered international target group, with privacy protections. |
| 23:00 – 05:00 | Must be supported by soupçons graves et concordants and a risk of evidence loss. |
That legal threshold is what makes the timing pointed. Pogacar and Vingegaard were the only two riders known to have been tested in the night; other leaders, including Remco Evenepoel and the young Frenchman Paul Seixas, were not disturbed. The implication of the statute, at least on paper, is that the ITA believed it had grounds to single out the race's top two — a bar the agency has not publicly explained meeting. Several French outlets have simply concluded that the two leaders seraient donc soumis à ces soupçons graves et concordants.
The reaction inside the peloton
The riders' union did not hold back. Pascal Chanteur, president of the Union Nationale des Cyclistes Professionnels and the riders' representative on the Tour, said his organisation was crying scandal
and accused the agency of harassment. The riders are being spied on,
he said on franceinfo. Controlling a rider at 2 a.m. on the Tour de France, is that really reasonable for the recovery and health of the riders? Anti-doping is important, but it must not be conducted any old how.
Inside the Visma-Lease a Bike camp, the reaction was more split. Richard Plugge, the team's managing director, accepted the inconvenience. It is not ideal for sleep, but it is a very good sign for our sport,
he said, adding — in comments reported by Wielerflits — that other teams had also been targeted overnight, without elaborating.
Matteo Jorgenson, Vingegaard's American team-mate, was less diplomatic. Asked to keep his thoughts private, he did not.
"I was asked to keep my opinion to myself, but this is a complete lack of respect for the riders. We are focusing heavily on recovery. That is hugely important, especially between two of the toughest mountain stages in this Tour. And then you get woken up at 2 a.m. That makes me really furious."
Chanteur echoed that frustration at a structural level. Cycling, he noted, already spends around ten million euros a year on the anti-doping fight, and the yellow jersey is tested every day regardless. The fight against doping is important, but it must not be carried out any old way,
he said. The riders, he insisted, want a high-performing
anti-doping system — just one that does not treat them as suspects by default.
What Sunday's stage now means
Whether the night's disruption will leave a mark on the racing is the open question. Pogacar leads Vingegaard by 4'30" and has won four stages already in this Tour, including the punishing finish at the Markstein on Saturday. A further five riders sit within 1'20" of the Dane. The Plateau de Solaison, with its hors-catégorie slopes, was always going to be a place where gaps could be widened or narrowed. The script now carries a second variable: who has recovered, and who has not.
For the Slovenian, the answer, at least outwardly, is already in. I over-caffeinated,
he said with a smile. I am ready to attack the day.
Sources
These sources formed the evidence pack for this article. Links open the original publisher; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
- ici.fr original
- T.F. original
- cnews.fr original
- ouest-france.fr original
- lequipe.fr original
- rfi.fr original
- lessentiel.lu original