Tadej Pogacar<\/a> were subjected to unexpected nocturnal doping controls prior to stage 15, as the race headed into the Savoyarde Alps. Vingegaard was tested at 2am by the ITA (International Testing Agency) and spoke about the experience before the stage began.<\/p>\n\u201cI was sleeping very well, but somebody knocked on my door at 2am,\u201d the two-time Tour winner said. \u201cIt\u2019s good that they test, but when it\u2019s affecting performance and \u2060your sleep, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Vingegaard\u2019s crash was caused by fatigue and a moment\u2019s inattention or down to a sudden movement in the peloton is not clear, although he was in the slipstream of several of his Visma-Lease-a-Bike teammates when he fell.<\/p>\n
Jonas Vingegaard descends earlier on stage 15. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
After a brief hiatus, the racing continued. Once again, Pogacar, this time with Remco Evenepoel and his UAE Emirates XRG teammate Isaac del Toro in tow, moved to the front of the race on the steep final climb, just as Vingegaard, cradling his right arm, gingerly climbed the steps to the Tour\u2019s mobile hospital.<\/p>\n
But for once the four-time winner did not have the upper hand and was unable to come past Evenepoel as the Belgian led home the sprint for the stage victory.<\/p>\n
Behind the trio, Paul Seixas and Evenepoel\u2019s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate, Florian Lipowitz, gave chase but both lost almost a minute in the overall standings.<\/p>\n
There is certain to be an angry reaction to the circumstances surrounding Vingegaard\u2019s dramatic exit. Many in the peloton were dismayed by the timing of the tests, which brought a particularly strong reaction from the Dane\u2019s teammate, Matteo Jorgenson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asked to keep my opinion on this to myself, but this is a complete lack of respect for the riders,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are focusing heavily on recovery. That is hugely important, especially between two of the toughest mountain stages in this Tour. And then you get woken up at 2am. That makes me really furious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olympic champion and stage winner Evenepoel was equally outraged. \u201cThey told me that it supposedly happened at two o\u2019clock in the morning. That seems very strange to me, because that is not allowed according to the rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is good that our sport is, and remains, so on top of the anti-doping fight,\u201d Vingegaard\u2019s team manager, Richard Plugge, said. \u201cTwo o\u2019clock in the night is not ideal, although it doesn\u2019t matter what time of the night it is. It remains not ideal. The ITA will have their reasons for this. We have to follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour de France on the approach to the Alpine climb of Plateau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-549273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}