Tour De France Hit by New Wave of Anti-Doping Tests
The International Testing Agency tested several teams at about 8:30 pm after riders and unions criticized earlier night-time visits.
- On Monday, several Tour teams including Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe and Decathlon CMA CGM faced anti-doping controls during the evening, contrasting with overnight tests conducted the previous day.
- Sunday's 2 am and 5 am tests on Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard by the International Testing Agency sparked backlash, with riders blasting the controls as "inhumane."
- Red Bull manager Ralph Denk told ZDF that "some riders were already asleep" during 10 pm tests, while EF Education manager Jonathan Vaughters defended night testing to prevent "peptide and testosterone micro dosing."
- The CPA union criticized Monday's process as counter-productive, while the International Testing Agency operates under International Cycling Union designation since 2021 to conduct doping controls.
- These measures target doping practices from the 1990s and 2000s involving Lance Armstrong; Vaughters suggested earlier adoption of such testing could have saved the sport "25 years of drama.
16 Articles
16 Articles
'All riders were included in the operation' – Entire Tour de France peloton provided blood samples to anti-doping organisation on rest day
The International Testing Agency confirmed to Cycling Weekly that they undertook a mass testing program on the Tour de France's second and final rest day
All the runners of all the teams involved underwent anti-doping checks on Monday night, according to the information of "Libé", which can also reveal that a rider from Bahrain-Victorious was checked in the first week, at 5 a.m.
There has been a lot of talk in the cycling community in recent days about the nightly visits of doping controllers to teams at the Tour de France. Slovenian cyclist Matej Mohorič sees the reason for the high-profile nighttime actions as also justifying the agency's reputation.
Unlike those experienced in the middle of the night by Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, judged "inhuman" by many riders, Monday's tests were carried out at more traditional times, in the evening, even though some athletes were already in bed. "We also received a visit last night, some riders were already asleep," said Ralph Denk, the manager of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe on the German TV channel ZDF. "The eight riders of the German formation, in…
Several teams of the Tour de France, including Red Bull Bora, Decathlon CMA CGM and Groupama-FDJ, received the visit of the inspectors of the International Testing Agency (ITA) during the rest day Monday night for...
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