Tour de France: Lead cyclists faced anti-doping tests overnight

Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard underwent anti-doping controls in the middle of the night.

VOUGY, France, July 19 - Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar and Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, the top two riders in the Tour de France general classification, underwent anti-doping controls in the middle of the night overnight, both riders said before the start of Sunday’s 15th stage.

Unannounced testing has been permitted at the race since 2016, with riders subject to on-the-spot tests between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time.

Yellow jersey Pogacar was tested at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), a UAE Team Emirates-XRG spokesperson told Reuters.

“I got four hours of sleep today,” Pogacar said before the start. “I couldn’t fall back to sleep. It was definitely not nice to wake up in the middle of sweet dreams.”

“They come randomly in the mornings through the tour, and today they chose night time.”

Vingegaard said he was tested at 2 a.m.

“The ITA (International Testing Agency) didn’t allow me to sleep much. I was sleeping very well, but somebody knocked on my door at 2 a.m., big surprise to me,” the two-time Tour winner said. “Of course, it’s good that they test, but when it’s affecting performance and your sleep, I don’t think it’s so good.”

“It took me about 40 minutes before I was back in my room, so not the best night.”

Sunday’s stage 15 is a 183.9km mountainous ride from Champagnole to the Plateau de Solaison.

Reporting by Vincent Daheron in Vougy; Editing by Hugh Lawson