Tom Dumoulin said he was initially surprised to hear dope testing could take place during the night, but felt it would add to the credibility of the racing and the athletes, sentiments echoed by Jonathan Vaughters (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
With the debate around night time testing at the Tour de France still unfolding, there remain completely unsubstantiated claims a 2am caused Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) to crash out of the race.
And now two big figures in the sport have come out in defence of the night time testing witnessed on the race at the weekend.
Jonathan Vaughters, a former Tour de France rider turned team boss at EF Education-EasyPost, and Giro d'Italia winner and former world champion, Tom Dumoulin, have set out in very clear terms why these tests should be welcomed.
They made their remarks after Tour leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and then 2nd placed overall Vingegaard were tested in the early hours of Sunday morning, right between two tough mountain stages.
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Pogačar said he got a knock on his hotel room door at 5am, some three hours after the testers had called to Vingegaard's hotel room. The Dane said the process took about 40 minutes ahead of Sunday's stage, which did not start until lunchtime.
Vingegaard crashed in the final of the stage and was forced to abandon the race, with his team later confirming fears he had broken his collarbone.
Jonas Vingegaard crashed after of the race after the night time test, with many people - despite having no evidence - linking to the test to his crash (Photo: Jonas Vingegaard)
Vaughters, a former team mate of Lance Armstrong who effectively turned whistleblower as the truth about Armstrong and his US Postal team emerged, said night time tests should have always been feature of the anti-doping landscape.
"2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide(EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing. If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama," he said.
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"It’s unfortunate that Tadej and Jonas have to atone for the sh*t we did. However, I’d take some lost sleep for some gained credibility. I should apologize to both of them, honestly."
Dumoulin, who remains working as a commentator after retiring early from his racing career, said he was encouraged by the night time tests on the Tour.
Initially, he said he believed testing was only allowed under the rules between 6am and 11pm. And he was surprised to learn testing could be done during the night.
It was put to him that, under the rules, testers could put forward their argument, outlining reasons an exemption should be made, and permission could be granted by a court for the out-of-hours tests.
However, given cycling's history, finding a French judge willing to allow night time tests was probably not a difficult task. And it is highly likely only very general reasons were required.
Overall, Dumoulin believed the night time tests were a warning sign to the peloton, and also beneficial to riders in the long run.
“If they don’t find anything now, that would be incredibly good for the credibility of cycling," he said on NOS, the TV channel.
"Then guys like Pogačar and Vingegaard will be tested throughout the entire Tour de France- even at night. If nothing is found, that’s actually a good sign.
“So this is allowed, but I didn’t know it required judicial intervention. But either way, this is big news. Maybe it’s a warning shot fired by the anti-doping agency.
"Like, ‘Guys, watch out, ee have the ability to test you at night, and we could just show up at your door at 3 am’. I’m really curious to see if there will be an explanation."
