Jonathan Vaughters says night controls could have stopped blood-doping era
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XRG’s Tadej Pogacar, wearing the yellow jersey, in action with other cyclists during Stage 15 of the Tour de France.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – Former professional cyclist and Cannondale-EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters has weighed in on the row over pre-dawn doping tests at the Tour de France, saying they could have exposed cycling’s blood-doping era decades earlier had they existed at the time.
Riders including race leader Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard were woken in the early hours of July 19 for unannounced doping checks ahead of the 15th stage, prompting complaints that the disruption to sleep was unfair and potentially dangerous.
Vaughters, who rode professionally through the late 1990s and early 2000s, defended the practice.
“2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro-dosing,” the American wrote on social media.
“If UCI (International Cycling Union) had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.”
His comments carry particular weight given his own history with doping.
Vaughters was a teammate of Lance Armstrong on the US Postal Service team and later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, including erythropoietin (EPO), during his career.
He subsequently testified in the US Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation into compatriot Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour titles in 2012 after Usada concluded he ran what it called the most sophisticated doping programme the sport had seen.
Vaughters went on to found the team now known as Cannondale-EF, positioning it as an advocate for clean racing.
His remarks come as riders pushed back on the timing of the tests on July 19.
Vingegaard, tested at 2am, said the visit cost him roughly 40 minutes of sleep before a mountain stage on which he later crashed and broke his collarbone.
Pogacar, tested at 5am, said he managed only four hours of sleep. Stage winner Remco Evenepoel called the practice “inhuman”.
The International Testing Agency, which oversees doping controls for the UCI, said that it was “conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders’ rest and recovery”. However, it added, effective testing must, “in limited and justified circumstances,” occur outside daytime hours.
Micro-dosing of substances such as EPO and human growth hormone (HGH), which can clear the body within hours, has long concerned anti-doping authorities, who say predictable daytime-only testing makes such practices easier to evade.
On July 20, the Professional Cyclists’ Association raised concerns about overnight testing.
“The quality of sleep and recovery is essential not only for performance but also for the health and safety of the riders,” it said in a statement.
“It is clear that this practice hinders athletes’ recovery during the most important and difficult race on the global calendar and runs counter to the intended objectives.”
The association also urged anti-doping authorities to boost investment in scientific research and detection technologies. REUTERS
