{"id":813349,"date":"2026-07-21T01:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813349\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T01:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:19:14","slug":"naesen-analyses-nighttime-doping-tests-at-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813349\/","title":{"rendered":"Naesen analyses nighttime doping tests at the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tour de France was shaken up quite a bit<\/a> on Sunday during Stage 15. Before the start, we had already heard from Tadej Pogacar<\/a> and Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> about a night time doping test. By the end, the Visma rider from Denmark had crashed out of the Tour de France<\/a>. The doping test sparked a heated debate: did the French authorities go too far? In his analysis, Decathlon rider Oliver Naesen<\/a> is clear.”We need to take this seriously,” the Belgian cyclist begins his story on HLN’s<\/a> Cycling Podcast. Apparently, there are substances that remain detectable in the blood for only three hours. \u201cThen you can\u2019t test after the Plateau de Solaison, because why would you take it on a rest day?\u201d Naesen counters immediately.”You have to test for it at a time when it matters, but no one is going to take it at 11 p.m.,” is the follow-up argument. That test was not conducted by the UCI<\/a>, but by the French anti-doping agency. \u201cI\u2019d prefer to call that unprofessional, and also a bit of a desire to prove oneself,\u201d the Belgian states firmly.Naesen: ‘Who\u2019s ever been caught using those?’<\/p>\n

The Decathlon rider thinks he knows what they were looking for. \u201cI hear they\u2019re looking for growth hormones. Who\u2019s ever been caught using those? This is the first time I\u2019ve heard of a crackdown on growth hormones. That\u2019s something that used to be undetectable and was used back in the wild days,\u201d Naesen recalls.<\/p>\n

An interesting detail: only Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard were pulled out of bed in the middle of the night. Paul Seixas, for example, was left alone<\/a>. According to Naesen, would the night time checks have taken place even if Seixas hadn\u2019t been in the Tour? \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. In any case, it\u2019s somewhat unfair that neither he nor Evenepoel were subjected to those checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/Naesen wonders where the line should be drawn<\/p>\n

Because, as the Belgian puts it: \u201cYou have to draw the line somewhere, because you can\u2019t just assume it\u2019s all part of the game. What can you put an athlete through?\u201d Naesen himself, at any rate, never experienced a night time check. \u201cI know that during the [Team] Sky era, there was talk of introducing night time tests. That was a big deal back then. I think it was allowed, but I don\u2019t believe it ever actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naesen had a doping test just last week. \u201cThey were Belgians\u2014very respectful people. It\u2019s a pleasant atmosphere at the table. You have a cup of coffee together, and then you have to sit for 10 minutes while they draw your blood. It\u2019s all perfectly fine; it\u2019s a very friendly process. But at two in the morning?\u201d<\/p>\n

“We’re all human,” the veteran continues. \u201cThe question is: where do we draw the line? To what extent should we test riders at any time of the day? If there are actually doping substances that only stay in the system for three hours, then that\u2019s certainly tempting, of course,\u201d Naesen admits, acknowledging the appeal.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/Naesen does not think Vingegaard’s crash is due to night time inspectionAccording to the rules, a nighttime test would be allowed if doping is suspected<\/a>. Is that the case here? \u201cNot at all,\u201d the Belgian says. \u201cAnd in a way, this is still an insinuation. Poga\u010dar wasn\u2019t happy either, was he? But his reaction was that he just made his coffee a little stronger. He acts like he\u2019s totally cool with it all, because, of course, there are allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, he has to deal with that, including that annoying group of critics who say, ‘This can’t be clean,'” Naesen continues, still just as firmly. “That’s why he doesn’t really dare to say anything about that inspection. But a line has to be drawn somewhere, because this doesn\u2019t happen in any other sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s still that question that will never be answered: Did the night time check have an impact on Vingegaard\u2019s eventual crash (and resulting DNF)? \u201cYou can\u2019t directly link the two, but you can\u2019t completely rule it out either,\u201d Naesen concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tour de France was shaken up quite a bit on Sunday during Stage 15. Before the start,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,6495,185104,85,6494,346968,39556],"class_list":["post-813349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-oliver-naesen","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}