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Surprise overnight anti-doping tests involving Tour de France stars Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel have become one of the biggest talking points of this year’s Tour, but the International Testing Agency says the timing is deliberate.
For decades, Tour de France anti-doping largely focused on stage winners, jersey holders and selected riders after the finish.
Now, ITA officials are showing up unannounced at team hotels in the middle of the night.
“Every single test is a targeted test,” ITA Director of Testing Olivier Banuls told Velo. “We take all the available pieces of information to better direct our strategy.”
Velo spoke to Banuls at the start of the Tour in Barcelona to get a better understanding of the ITA’s anti-doping strategy.
The ITA, which has managed the UCI’s anti-doping program since 2021, has shifted toward an intelligence-led strategy that increasingly targets riders outside traditional finish-line controls and at unpredictable hours.
“Anytime,” Banuls said when asked about surprise testing. “That’s something that’s important. Anytime, anywhere.”
Why overnight testing is increasing at the Tour
Few riders questioned the need for anti-doping controls, but their criticism has centered on the timing.
Rest days and the nights before major mountain stages are considered among the most valuable testing windows, but many questioned whether 2 a.m. wake-up calls crossed the line two weeks into cycling’s hardest race.
Timing is one of anti-doping’s most important weapons against some of the most hard-to-detect practices.
“Micro-dosing is particularly challenging because the detection window is much shorter,” Banuls said. “That means timing becomes extremely important. When do we test? Where do we test? At what time do we test? Those are all important questions that have to be answered.”
The ITA says the overnight tests do not mean any rider is under suspicion. Officials select each control based on where and when it is most likely to be effective.
Banuls said the ITA testing program has also expanded in recent years after a 35 percent increase in the annual anti-doping budget to more than €10 million.
The agency expects to collect roughly 600 in-competition samples during this year’s Tour after conducting more than 360 out-of-competition controls in the month leading up to the race on Tour-bound riders.
More than 40 anti-doping personnel are deployed throughout the three-week race.
French court approves late-night testing
Under WADA rules, out-of-competition controls are generally not permitted between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless specific legal conditions are met.
According to L’Équipe, the ITA obtained authorization from a French judge allowing the early-hour testing during the 2026 Tour after investigators argued there were “serious and consistent suspicions” that justified an exception under French law.
On Sunday, the ITA defended its testing protocol, but it did not expand on why it’s doing so many anti-doping controls.
Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of EF Education-EasyPost, said Tuesday the overnight controls are one of the most effective tools available to anti-doping authorities.
“When it comes down to very difficult to detect hormones and peptides, like EPO and humane growth hormone, the clearance time can be quite quickly,” Vaughters told Velo and other media. “One of the few weapons anti-doping agencies have to make sure there is not a micro-dosing effort going on is to basically test whenever they can.”
Vaughters acknowledged late-night calls are far from ideal, but said the trade-off is worth it.
“I don’t like that they lost sleep, but I would rather lose sleep than lose credibility,” he said. “My guess is that those tests will turn out to be fine, and then you establish more credibility for the sport than ever before.”
Vaughters also confirmed that riders from his team were tested Monday evening around 10 p.m.
Vaughters wishes 2 a.m. controls happened in 2000
The anti-doping program riders face today is nothing like what the peloton experienced during cycling’s EPO era.
The introduction of the Athlete Biological Passport, more sophisticated testing, intelligence-led investigations, and long-term sample storage have transformed how the sport is policed.
“It’s not only intelligence, or data analysis, or science,” Banuls said. “It’s the entire anti-doping ecosystem that has evolved throughout the years.”
Samples collected during the Tour will now undergo laboratory analysis. Any adverse finding would then follow the WADA process, including A and B sample analysis, with possible bans and disqualifications for positive cases.
Samples can also be stored for up to 10 years for future reanalysis as detection technology improves.
“The situation has evolved. We are reducing the gap,” Banuls said. “The fact that we have so many ongoing cases means you cannot say the sport is 100 percent clean. It’s a never-ending fight.”
Vaughters, who later admitted using EPO during his career, said overnight testing during the EPO era could have changed cycling’s history.
“If we had had 2 a.m. controls in 2000, we would have had a huge amount of riders banned from the sport then, including me, and we would have saved the sport 25 years of drama,” he said. “We would have solved the problem then.”
