Special envoy to Courchevel
Still wearing the yellow jersey on leaving the Alps, Jonas Vingegaard once again spoke about the suspicions of doping against him, repeating that he was not taking any banned product to improve his performance. “I don’t take anything that wouldn’t give my daughter,” he insisted. The Dane is, since July 1 and the start of Bilbao, the most controlled rider in the peloton: at least 14 times.
The Dane has undergone four doping controls in the past two days, including one an hour before the start of stage 17 on Wednesday, his Jumbo-Visma team confirmed. “We fully agree with that… We have asked the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to act like that in fact,” said a spokesperson. Pogacar and his teammates were also tested on Wednesday morning an hour before the start in Saint Gervais.
Since 2021, the International Testing Agency (ITA) has been managing testing in cycling. On the Grande Boucle, the leader of the general classification is checked every day and each stage winner must also undergo an anti-doping test. Now Vingegard has worn the yellow tunic for twelve days. Twelve tests, therefore, to which must be added the two additional ones. The winner of the Tour de France was also able to undergo other random tests.
Another blood test was carried out before the start of the event as part of the medical monitoring of the whole peloton. Sunday evening, after the arrival on the Champs Élysées, the ITA will make a selection of the samples which will be kept for ten years for possible new analyses.
