'A French rider who is high in the GC did not have this control' - Mohoric questions fairness of late doping tests at Tour

The Slovenian rider suggested that cycling’s current generation is still paying the price for the sport’s troubled past, while appearing to refer to Paul Seixas, the leading French rider sitting fourth overall and just outside the podium places, as having escaped the same level of scrutiny.

“We are paying for cycling's past,” Mohorič told Siol.net. “But despite that, it might still be good to have some human limits, or at least to ensure that it is the same for everyone, because we know that a French rider who is high in the general classification did not have this control.”

Mohorič’s comments add an extra dimension to the growing debate around the timing of doping tests at the Tour. The issue is no longer simply whether surprise controls are necessary, but whether their timing is reasonable and whether they are being applied consistently across teams and riders.

The Bahrain Victorious rider confirmed that his team had been visited by doping control officers at around 5am earlier in the race.

“For us, it is uncomfortable,” Mohorič said. “It interrupts our rest and takes a lot of energy. I once had a control at five in the morning, which for us is practically the middle of the night.”

Mohorič went on to question whether the testing agency is under pressure to demonstrate that its budget and activities were justified.

“The agency carrying out the testing has a significant budget and somehow has to justify it,” he said. “I think it is a business. They have to show that they are working and carrying out controls, and that the sport is clean and fair.”

His remarks came after another round of doping controls on Monday evening, towards the end of the Tour de France rest day.

Testing officers visited several teams according to French newspaper Le Parisien, including Paul Seixas’s Decathlon CMA CGM and Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. 

All of those checks took place between 6am and 11pm, within the standard testing window, meaning no additional authorisation was required.

The circumstances were different when Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar were tested overnight ahead of Sunday’s stage to Plateau de Solaison. 

Vingegaard was reportedly visited at around 2am, while Pogačar was tested at approximately 5am. Because both controls took place outside the normal testing hours, judicial approval had to be obtained in advance.