Overview
- Race favourites Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar were visited by unannounced anti-doping controllers in the early hours on Sunday, a move riders say reduced their sleep before a key mountain stage.
- Hours after the tests on July 19, Vingegaard crashed about 20km from the Stage 15 finish, suffered a fractured collarbone, was taken for X-rays and later withdrew from the Tour with surgery recommended.
- Remco Evenepoel won the Stage 15 summit finish and then took Tuesday’s 26.1km time trial, moving into second overall and cutting Tadej Pogacar’s lead to 4 minutes 32 seconds after Stage 16.
- The International Testing Agency defended the timing of the controls as lawful and risk‑based under UCI rules that permit testing outside normal hours, and officials said laboratory analysis of samples can take weeks.
- The episode has intensified calls from riders for clearer safeguards to protect sleep and safety during Grand Tours and could prompt scrutiny of testing procedures even though no formal rule changes have been announced.