More late-night doping tests at Tour as 'effective' controls backed

Top German rider Florian Lipowitz and his team-mates received a late-night visit from drug testers on the eve of Tuesday's Tour de France individual time trial.

All eight Red Bull cyclists were tested at around 10 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday, a team spokesman confirmed.

Late-night or early morning doping tests have made headlines at this edition, with runaway leader Tadej Pogačar affected along with Jonas Vingegaard, who crashed out after little sleep following a 2 am check.

Red Bull team boss Ralph Denk said it is part and parcel of being a cyclist.

"We have a dark past in cycling and that is why it is good that checks are being carried out. Regulations allow for tests that take place deep into the night. Of course it does hinder recovery. Some of the riders had already gone to sleep," he told German broadcaster ZDF.

"But it ensures that our sport is credible, that it is clean and that is why it is part of cycling."

French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported that a court in Paris had ruled that night-time doping controls this year are permissible.

A judge received a request from the International Testing Agency (ITA), which is independent to cycling governing body UCI. It was the first application of provisions introduced into French law in 2015 to allow night-time doping checks.

The tests must ensure proportionality between interference with the athlete's rights and the fight against doping.

There has also been debate at the Tour over the fact that unlike Slovenia's Pogačar and Dane Vingegaard, French young star Paul Seixas - currently fourth overall - has not been tested overnight.

Jonathan Vaughters, the US team boss of EF Education-Easy Post who doped as a rider during the height of the cycling scandal in the late 1990s and early 2000s, said overnight controls were necessary.

"I’ll roll this grenade down the aisle: 2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO,hGH) and testosterone micro dosing," he wrote on X on Monday.

"If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama."