Tadej Pogacar holds a four and a half minute lead going into Sunday's 15th stage of the Tour de France
Champagnole (France) (AFP) - Tour de France leader Tadej Pogacar confirmed on Sunday that he was visited in the middle of the night by anti-doping controllers, just hours before a crucial mountain stage.
French newspaper Le Parisien had said that both four-time winner Pogacar and his main rival, Jonas Vingegaard, were targeted in the night.
“I got four hours of sleep today. Not 2:00 am in the morning, because they were (there at) 5:00 in the morning,” he said before the start of Sunday’s 15th stage from Champagnole in the Jure to Plateau de Solaison in the Alps when asked about the report.
“But I always go to sleep late. It was a big shock for me also to get four hours of sleep today.
“But I had a very cool long morning. I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I was chilling, listening to some old Eminem hits, and making coffees, so I over-caffeinated.
“I was ready to start the day, but it was definitely not nice to wake up in the middle of sweet dreams.”
Pogacar has spent more than 10 days in the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour, meaning that he has been tested at the end of each of those stages, including on Saturday.
“And also, they come randomly in the mornings through the Tour,” he added.
“And today they chose night time.”
The night-time doping control came just hours before the start of a 183.9km stage with barely a metre of flat roads including four categorised climbs.
The stage finishes on the brutally tough 11km-long Plateau de Solaison, which has an average gradient of nine percent.
Slovenian Pogacar currently leads Vingegaard in the overall standings by four and a half minutes, while another five riders are within 1min 20sec of the Dane.
Le Parisien said that Vingegaard was visited by anti-doping controllers at his team hotel at 2:00 am while Pogacar was disturbed at 5:00 am, which he confirmed.
Contacted by AFP, neither Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team nor race organisers ASO had yet responded.