Unannounced Early-Morning Doping Tests Conducted Ahead of Tour de France Stage

Riders including race leader Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard were subjected to unannounced doping checks in the early hours ahead of the 15th stage of the Tour de France on or around July 19, 2026, Abc reported. Pogačar was tested at 5 a.m. and said he obtained only four hours of sleep.

Vingegaard was tested at 2 a.m. and stated the visit cost him about 40 minutes of sleep before a mountain stage on which he later crashed and broke his collarbone. Remco Evenepoel described the night-time testing practice as inhuman.

The International Testing Agency stated it is conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders' rest and recovery but that effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, occur outside daytime hours. m. testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing.

All would have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama. Vaughters was a teammate of Lance Armstrong on the US Postal Service team in the 1990s, later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs including EPO, and testified in the US Anti-Doping Agency investigation that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012.

Micro-dosing of substances such as EPO and human growth hormone, which can clear the body within hours, has long concerned anti-doping authorities.