The ‘vampires’ attack again in the Tour: New wave of anti-doping controls, with Evenepoel and Seixas affected

The 113th edition of the Tour de France returns to activity this Tuesday with the individual time trial after the corresponding rest Monday. A break that the cyclists took advantage of to recharge their batteries and the inspectors of the International Control Agency (ITA) to perform further checks.

First they were Tadej Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard those who saw their schedule altered due to anti-doping controls at ungodly hours (at 02:00 and 05:00), and now it was the turn of other heavyweights in the peloton, such as Remco Evenepoel or Paul Seixas.

“We also had a visitor last night; some cyclists were already asleep,” he said. Ralph Denk, director of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, to the German television channel ZDF. The eight cyclists of the German team, including the Belgian Remco Evenepoelsecond in the general classification, were subjected to controls around 10:00 p.m.; That is to say, both Remco and the rest of the runners were able to fall asleep more peacefully.

The runners from the Decathlon and Groupama-FJD teams had it better, who received a visit from the ‘vampires’ around 8:30 p.m. Other teams that had to pass the controls were Picnic, Bahrain-Victorius and Jayco AlUla.

This series of anti-doping controls in the Tour has raised quite a stir, especially due to the hours at which the inspectors visited Pogacar and Vingegaard. In fact, the Union of Professional Cyclists (CPA) He raised his voice about this by pointing out that “they can hinder the recovery of athletes during the most important and difficult race on the world calendar and is contrary to the planned objectives.” A context in which some place the fall and subsequent abandonment of Jonas Vingegaard the day after the control, although the affected person himself did not want to link it, something that Pogacar did hint at in his statements.

The truth is that anti-doping controls usually take place between 05:00 and 23:00, and the ITA had asked a judge in Paris for authorization to carry out these nighttime controls, as reported by ‘L’Equipe’, knowing that these controls can disturb the rest of cyclists, but emphasizing that “effective controls should be able to be carried out outside normal daytime hours, in limited and justified circumstances.”

According to the anti-doping regulations of the International Cycling Union (UCI)), the ITA “must have serious and specific suspicions that a cyclist may be involved in doping activities” to conduct anti-doping tests between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.