{"id":812874,"date":"2026-07-19T21:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812874\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T21:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:17:11","slug":"lance-armstrong-weighs-in-on-vingegaard-doping-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/812874\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Armstrong weighs in on Vingegaard doping control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage 15 of the Tour de France was as good as any we\u2019ve seen at this year\u2019s race. Remco Evenpoel won a tense final<\/a> on a summit finish, overturning UAE\u2019s numerical superiority. But the sporting spectacle was overshadowed by two things. Jonas Vongegaard\u2019s Tour de France ending crash<\/a>, and the 2am doping control visit he and Poga\u010dar had to suffer<\/a>. Lance Armstrong<\/a>, unsurprisingly, went in hard on the latter.Speaking with Sir Bradley Wiggins<\/a> and George Hincapie<\/a> on his nightly The Move podcast<\/a>, ‘the most tested rider in the history of the sport’ was clearly disgusted by the timing of the doping control visit. \u201cThey showed up at his room at 2 a.m,\u201d said Armstrong. \u201cKnocked on the door and woke him up in the middle of the Tour to France. 2 a.m. is a human rights issue. I’m speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiggins explained further, after discussing the details of the post-stage process, and concluding that Pogacar and Vingegaard would have got back to their hotels around 1am. \u201cThen he [Pogacar] was woken up at 5:00 a.m. So 4 hours sleep. You have to think that Jonas was very similar. Just settled into bed and an hour later gets woken up. I mean, we have to all agree that that’s not right, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong and Hincapie question the effect of a 2am wake up call at the Tour de FranceTadej Pogacar<\/a> himself has drawn a line<\/a> from the 2am wake up call to the Tour-ending crash of Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, saying: \u2018Jonas had a doping test at 2.00 am last night, and that makes me think: perhaps you\u2019re less focused when your sleep has been ruined?\u2019<\/p>\n

Hincapie also wonders the same: \u201cIn particular, these days when everybody tracks their sleep, and knows exactly how well they sleep, mentally what does that do to you when you’re woken up at 2 am?\u201d asks Hincapie.<\/p>\n

Armstrong was quick to agree: \u2018I don’t think that’s far-fetched at all. It’s plausible.\u201d said the American, with Wiggins nodding in agreement.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard crashed the day after a 2AM doping control<\/p>\n

Armstrong is all for doping controls<\/p>\n

Aware of the backlash that his comments would cause, Armstrong was quick to point out he\u2019s all for doping controls. \u201cThis is the hardest sporting event in the world. Sleep is essential. Now, obviously, nobody here is going to be a proponent of not having controls, but this isn’t a sporting issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Clearly aggravated by the issue, Armstrong went on: \u201cThis should all be done and dusted before the Tour starts,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe get it. You have to control the athletes. But it should be figured out before. \u2018We’re going to do all these controls\u2019. Yes, of course. But not in the middle of the night. Not in the middle of the hardest sporting event in the world,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video!<\/p>\n

Armstrong has a strong message for the UCI<\/p>\n

Armstrong says that the month of July has been world-class for sporting events, with the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Golf Open. But the former Postal Service rider claims these types of actions reflect badly on professional cycling: \u201cWhat would have happened if you went and knocked on Messi’s door at 2 am?\u201d the Texan asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear UCI, you’re not going to get any credit for this. You don’t get credit. So, what are you doing?\u201d Whatever the outcome of this latest doping controversy, it\u2019s very clear the topic still gets Lance Armstrong fired up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stage 15 of the Tour de France was as good as any we\u2019ve seen at this year\u2019s race.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[184737,49,48,635,128736,133917,5900,71857,225903,82,1422],"class_list":["post-812874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bradley-wiggins","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-george-hincapie","tag-idl-productions","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-lance-armstrong","tag-latest-cycling-news","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}