Jonas Vingegaard crashes out of Tour de France after 2am doping control

Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour de France on the first Alpine stage on Sunday, only hours after being woken up in the early hours to undergo doping controls. He will have collarbone surgery in the next few days.

The double Tour winner, who also won the Giro d’Italia this year, climbed gingerly into a race ambulance, his right arm in a sling, after falling as the main peloton exited a roundabout in Bonneville.

Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar were subjected to unexpected nocturnal doping controls, outside the normal window of 6am to 11pm, before stage 15, as the race headed to Plateau de Solaison in the Savoyard Alps. Vingegaard was tested at 2am by the International Testing Agency (ITA), while Pogacar’s unexpected knock on the door came at 5am.

Pogacar described Vingegaard’s 2am wake-up call as “inhuman” and suggested that it “ruined” his longstanding rival’s sleep and could have been a factor in his crash. Before the stage start on Sunday, Vingegaard said: “I was sleeping very well. It’s good that they test, but when it’s affecting performance and your sleep, I don’t think it’s so good.”

Pogacar said the disturbance could “be a small percentage in why he crashed because he probably didn’t sleep good”, adding: “I know how it feels. They woke me up at five in the morning also, but at least I got my deep sleep. It’s better than if they come at two.”

Pogacar’s own performance seemed unaffected by the nocturnal disturbance. Once again he led the way up the final climb, this time with his UAE Emirates XRG teammate Isaac del Toro and Remco Evenepoel in tow, moving to the front of the race on the steep final climb, just as Vingegaard, cradling his right arm, gingerly climbed the steps to the Tour’s mobile hospital.

But for once Pogacar, the four-time winner, did not have the upper hand and was unable to come past Evenepoel, as the Belgian led home the sprint for the stage victory. Behind the trio, Paul Seixas and Florian Lipowitz – Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate – gave chase but both lost almost a minute in the overall standings.

In a statement the ITA said: “The ITA is conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders’ rest and recovery. Due consideration has therefore been given to minimise as much as possible the impact testing activities have on riders.

“However, the ITA, on behalf of the UCI [the governing body], has the responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the cycling anti‑doping programme and the integrity of cycling races.”

The statement added that “effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, be capable to occur outside standard daytime hours. All testing activities conducted at the Tour are subject to the safeguards established under the world anti-doping code, the UCI anti-doping rules and French law, with due consideration for riders’ welfare, equity and fundamental rights.”

While nocturnal tests are highly unusual, the UCI’s rules state that tests outside the normal hours of 6am to 11pm may be allowed if there is a “serious and specific suspicion that the rider may be engaged in doping”.

Other teams confirmed that during the Tour they have also undergone tests as early as five in the morning. Pogacar said that recently the pattern of controls he had experienced had been “strange”, adding: “They’re doing different testing than usual. For example, I was counting how many controls I had at home since the first of January.

“When I was at home, I was already waking up every day at six to check the doorbell because I had so many visits. I didn’t want to go for dinner or the supermarket even, because they were coming at random hours.

“If this is necessary to still prove that we are riding clean, then I totally accept it and I commit to this, but it’s a bit shit when you sleep four hours in one day.

“If Jonas was tested at two in the morning, he slept less than four hours, it ruined his deep sleep and then completely ruined the night. But it is what it is, and if this is what we have to do, we do it.”

Evenepoel, meanwhile, who has now risen to second in the overall standings behind Pogacar, was typically outspoken. “To be honest, I would send my team tonight to wake them [anti-doping officials] at three in the night, to let them feel how it is, and to take blood,” the double Olympic champion said.

“It’s inhuman and this is something we actually should not accept as athletes, because everybody knows sleep is the only recovery that we have in the night. And if that gets disturbed, it makes it even harder. I hope it doesn’t happen any more in the future because it’s quite disrespectful.”