{"id":823345,"date":"2026-07-24T15:46:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823345\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:46:26","slug":"tour-de-france-director-rejects-accusations-of-bias-towards-french-riders-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823345\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France director rejects accusations of bias towards French riders | Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, has rejected accusations of bias towards French riders and launched a staunch defence of the night-time drug tests<\/a> that were carried out during this year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the start of stage 18 in Voiron, Prudhomme insisted that the International Testing Agency\u2019s (ITA) testing practices did not favour any riders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought to have an independent agency, and now we have one,\u201d he told the Guardian. \u201cI have no desire whatsoever to interfere with their work. Not only am I not informed, I must not be informed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prudhomme\u2019s comments come in the wake of the Slovenian professional Matej Mohoric, who rides for the Bahrain Victorious team, appearing to imply that Paul Seixas, the 19-year-old French favourite, had been given preferential treatment by the ITA, saying in an interview on Tuesday<\/a> that \u201cit would be good to guarantee equal treatment for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all,\u201d Mohoric said, \u201cwe know that this French rider [Seixas], who is well placed in the general classification, didn\u2019t undergo that [night-time] test.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ITA stressed its independence from French anti-doping authorities on Wednesday and Prudhomme underlined the significance for such autonomy. \u201cThe UCI has ensured that there is now an independent agency (ITA),\u201d Prudhomme said. \u201cI find out about testing at exactly the same time as you do \u2013 or often even after you do. I\u2019m not informed beforehand, and nor should I be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the current race leader, Tadej Pogacar, and rival Jonas Vingegaard, who has abandoned the Tour, were tested at 5am and 2am respectively last Sunday morning. The tests have been described by the UCI as an \u201cexceptional measure, reserved for limited and justified circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ITA, Prudhomme said, was fulfilling a long-wanted role in cycling. \u201cIn 2008 the Tour was actually organised without the UCI, under the authority of the French Cycling<\/a> Federation, precisely so that independent anti-doping controls could be carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, the UCI said that the ITA\u2019s activities demonstrate that \u201cthe fight against doping is an absolute priority\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement continued: \u201cThe UCI acknowledges that night-time testing can disrupt riders\u2019 rest and recovery.\u201d But it added that \u201cthese controls serve an overriding interest: the fight against doping\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ITA is doing the job it\u2019s paid to do,\u201d Prudhomme said. \u201cI understand the riders\u2019 emotions. My only question is whether this would happen in any other sport. But as far as we\u2019re concerned, we wanted an independent agency. That\u2019s exactly what we have and that\u2019s what we asked for.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously these kinds of checks can\u2019t take place every single night. In this case they happened between two mountain stages. But that\u2019s their role. That\u2019s what the ITA are there for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prudhomme also rejected the notion that the unusual nature of these tests fuelled suspicion towards Pogacar, who is closing in on a record-equalling fifth Tour win. Instead he pointed to cycling as now being a leader in anti-doping control across all sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cPogacar is a rider who demonstrated exceptional talent from a very young age,\u201d he said. \u201cAt just 20 years old, he finished third in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a and won stages in the race, which is an extraordinary achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I ask is this: would these kinds of controls be carried out in every other major sport \u2013 including the world\u2019s most popular one [football]? I\u2019m not so sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, has rejected accusations of bias towards French riders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-823345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823345","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=823345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}