Visma seeks answers over overnight doping controls on Vingegaard and Pogacar

Tadej Pogačar was reportedly tested at around 5am on the same night, while the rest of the peloton was allowed to sleep. Visma Head of Racing Marc Reef said the team fully supported rigorous testing, but questioned whether controls at such disruptive hours could affect the sporting balance of the race.

“It is good that these controls take place. That is important for the sport,” Reef told NOS. “The timing, however, was far from ideal.”

Reef stressed that Visma was not questioning the decision to test Vingegaard or Pogačar. The team’s concern centred solely on when the controls were carried out.

“For us, it is purely about the timing,” Reef said. “Jonas was taken out of bed at two in the morning, Pogačar was tested at five, and the other riders were left to sleep.”

Recovery is a crucial part of performance during a Grand Tour, with riders expected to compete at the highest level for three consecutive weeks. Reef believes that interrupting the sleep of selected riders, while their rivals remain undisturbed, risks creating an uneven situation.

“Testing is there to protect the integrity of the sport,” he said. “But when riders are woken at different times during the night, you also have to consider whether that could influence the competition.”

The issue attracted further attention the following day, when Vingegaard suffered a heavy crash during stage 15 of the Tour de France and had to abandon the race.

Pogačar suggested that the disrupted night may have played a part. Vingegaard was more cautious, saying it was difficult to establish a direct connection, although he acknowledged that the overnight interruption “did not help”.

Visma has yet to receive an explanation for why the controls were conducted at those particular hours. Reef said the team would seek further information before drawing any conclusions.

“We do not know why it happened at that time,” he said. “We want to understand the reasoning behind it.”

The questions will be directed to the International Testing Agency (ITA), which conducts doping controls in professional cycling, and the UCI, the sport’s governing body.

Reef stopped short of criticising either organisation and reiterated that the team had no objection to unannounced testing. Visma’s position is that anti doping measures should protect the credibility of the sport without causing avoidable disruption to riders during a race.

“The controls themselves are not the issue,” Reef said. “We simply want clarity about why they had to take place in the middle of the night.”

French newspaper L’Équipereported that the late night operation had received judicial approval. Such approval can only be granted when the conditions for such an order are met, including “serious and consistent suspicions” of an anti-doping rule violation and a risk that evidence could otherwise be lost.