The International Testing Agency (ITA) has undertaken night-time anti-doping tests on multiple more riders at the ongoing Tour de France, Cycling Weekly has learned.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard and race leader Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG were woken up at 2am and 5am respectively on Sunday morning by doping control officers and made to provide an anti-doping sample.
Tests between the hours of 11pm and 6am are prohibited, except in exceptional circumstances, when the ITA has to request permission from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The UCI’s anti-doping rules state: “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.”
In a statement late on Sunday, the ITA said that “effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, be capable of occurring outside standard daytime hours.”
Pogačar said he did not get back to sleep after being woken, while stage 15 winner Remco Evenepoel of Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe said that it was “inhumane” and “it’s something that actually we should not accept as riders.”
Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Cycling Weekly that at least two other teams have been tested at 5am during the Tour, one in the first week and one in the second week.
Cycling Weekly understands that a number of other teams – perhaps as many as eight – have also been subjected to night-time testing.
A spokesperson for the ITA confirmed that more teams were tested outside “usual hours”.
The riders’ union, the Professional Cycling Associations (CPA), released a statement on Monday lending its support to the anti-doping movement, but questioned the “relevance” of night-time testing.
“The Tour de France is a competition that demands exceptional physical effort,” the CPA statement said. “The quality of sleep and recovery is essential not only for performance but also for the health and safety of the riders.
“It is clear that this practice hinders athletes’ recovery during the most important and difficult race on the global calendar and runs counter to the intended objectives.
“Cycling contributes approximately €10m to funding the fight against doping within the ITA for the collection and analysis of samples, while at the same WADA spends, on average, only $5 million per year across all sports on basic research to develop new methods for detecting and identifying new doping substances.
“Would it therefore be more appropriate to invest more in scientific research and detection technologies, rather than increasing the number of particularly intrusive unannounced tests?”
Night-time testing is only used when anti-doping authorities have concerns that an athlete may be engaged in doping practices. It is particularly useful at detecting substances which may have been taken in small doses – referred to as micro-dosing – that isn’t detectable several hours later.
Benjamin Cohen, the director general of the ITA, told The Athletic in April that he was in favour of restrictions around night-time testing loosening – but cautioned against blanket testing in the early hours.
“If you go and speak to the (ITA) testing department, they would say: yes, we need to be able to test whenever we can. Certainly, based on information [the ITA has], it would suggest that there is an issue,” Cohen said.
“I don’t think you would want to do mass testing at the Tour de France, for example, and wake up all the athletes at 3am — that doesn’t make sense. I think you would need to have very concrete suspicions (about an athlete) and use that in a very cautious manner.
“I wouldn’t advocate for mass night testing, but certainly for some flexibility if you believe that there is an issue.”
French sports daily L’Équipe reported on Monday that the ITA made their requests ahead of the Tour.
“As is customary in the lead-up to the Tour de France, the public health divisions of the Paris and Marseille judicial courts, which have jurisdiction over doping matters, are in contact with the UCI (International Cycling Union) and the ITA,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told L’Équipe.
“The judges of these two jurisdictions have concurrent jurisdiction to rule on requests for nighttime doping controls. A judge of liberties and detention in Paris was therefore indeed contacted by the ITA, pursuant to Article L.232-14-4 of the French Sports Code, to authorise the doping controls that took place on the night of July 18-19.”
