Jonas Vingegaard was asleep when anti-doping officers knocked on his hotel-room door around 2am on 19 July.
The Dane was second in the Tour de France, behind Tadej Pogačar, with the peloton due to start the mountainous 15th stage later that morning. Vingegaard was required to provide a sample, a process he said took approximately 40 minutes. Three hours later, officers visited Pogačar and tested him at 5am.
The yellow jersey later said he had managed around four hours’ sleep before abandoning any attempt to return to bed, listening to Eminem and drinking coffee instead.
The tests were conducted by the International Testing Agency, which has managed the UCI’s anti-doping programme independently since 2021. The ITA can collect blood or urine from riders during and outside competition, monitor their Athlete Biological Passports and use information from laboratories, performance data and its own investigations to decide who should be tested and when.
There appears to be almost no precedent …
