Paris judge authorised night-time doping tests for Pogacar and Vingegaard

A judge in Paris gave permission for doping tests to be carried out during the night on the Tour de France leader Tadej Pogacar and his main competitor Jonas Vingegaard. The tests happened in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Paris prosecutor's office announced on Monday that the International Testing Agency (ITA) had asked a judge, who deals with matters of liberty and detention, to approve anti-doping tests that occurred overnight between July 18 and 19.

Vingegaard and Pogacar were unexpectedly tested for doping late at night, outside the usual hours of 6am to 11pm. This happened before stage 15, as the group of cyclists was heading towards Plateau de Solaison in the French Alps.

Vingegaard was tested at 2am on Sunday by the ITA. Pogacar had his unexpected wake-up call for testing at 5am. Pogacar felt that Vingegaard's 2am test was 'inhuman'. He suggested it might have disturbed his rival's sleep and could have contributed to the crash on Sunday. In that crash, Vingegaard broke his collarbone and had to leave the Tour.

Before the stage started on Sunday, Vingegaard commented that while he thinks testing is good, he does not believe it is helpful when it affects performance and sleep. Under anti-doping rules, the UCI (cycling's governing body) can allow night-time tests between 11pm and 6am only if there are strong and specific suspicions of doping activities. Judges also have the authority to approve these requests.

The timing of these tests was criticised by many leading cyclists and team staff. They felt it showed a complete lack of respect for the riders. The ITA acknowledged that night-time testing can disturb riders' rest and recovery. However, they stated they have a responsibility to ensure anti-doping programmes are effective and races are fair. They also confirmed that other teams have faced similar night-time or early morning testing during this year's Tour.

Night-time testing was mainly introduced to catch the use of very small amounts of performance-enhancing drugs, which are hard to detect at other times. Some experts believe these tests are effective in preventing the micro-dosing of certain substances. They argue that if such tests had been in place earlier, many doping scandals could have been avoided.

The Tour de France finishes in Paris on Sunday. The results of these tests are not yet known, and there is no set time for them to be published. The ITA stated that any results showing an apparent doping rule violation will be made public according to their policies.