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Judge approved night-time Tour de France doping tests / Photo: © POOL/AFP
Judge approved night-time Tour de France doping tests
A French judge approved the night-time Tour de France anti-doping tests of star riders Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, the public prosecutor's office confirmed to AFP on Monday.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) petitioned the "Paris judge specialising in liberty and detention matters ... to authorise the anti-doping tests that took place overnight between July 18 and 19," the prosecutor's office stated.
Both race leader Pogacar and Vingegaard -- the two men who have dominated the Tour for the last six years -- were visited overnight from Saturday to Sunday just hours before a crucial mountain stage.
Professional riders and anti-doping testers were at loggerheads after former winner Vingegaard crashed out following the control.
Reigning champion Pogacar led the protests describing being woken up in the middle of the night for a doping test as "inhuman".
Vingegaard confirmed he had been woken at 2:00 am while Pogacar said that testers had been to his hotel at 5:00 am.
Both said that their sleep had been disturbed.
The ITA issued a statement defending its actions, insisting it had to conduct night-time tests to ensure it operates an "effective" anti-doping programme to protect "the integrity of cycling races".
Under the anti-doping regulations of the International Cycling Union, which delegated its anti-doping programme to the ITA in 2021, the UCI must have "serious and specific suspicions that the rider may be involved in doping activities" to conduct tests between 11 pm and 5 am.
The judges responsible for liberty and detention (JLD) "have concurrent jurisdiction to rule on requests for night-time anti-doping tests," the Paris public prosecutor's office told AFP.
As the wearer of the Tour's yellow jersey, Pogacar is already tested daily after the race.
Regarding the middle-of-the-night tests on his direct rivals, Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, now second in the general classification, remarked on Sunday that "it is inhumane to wake riders up in the middle of the night".
Matteo Jorgenson, a teammate of Vingegaard, described it as a "total lack of respect for the riders".
Their Visma team boss Richard Plugge said testing was "necessary" but lamented the timing as "not ideal".
G.Miller--SFF
