As I write this, online is abuzz with Jonas Vingegaard crashing out of this year’s Tour de France. The potential cause? Being awoken at 2 a.m. for an anti-doping test. Tadej Pogačar, wrote The Guardian’s Jeremy Whittle, said the disturbance could "be a small percentage in why he crashed because he probably didn’t sleep good", adding: "I know how it feels. They woke me up at five in the morning also, but at least I got my deep sleep. It’s better than if they come at two." Why were the Dane and Slovenian woken between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., which is uncommon from the International Testing Agency (ITA), who roll out the anti-doping programme on behalf of the UCI? No official reasons have been given, and being selected for a test, including out of hours, is a standard part of anti-doping controls, and does not imply any suspicion of, or wrongdoing by, the riders concerned.
However, when WADA first permitted nighttime testing across all its sports in 2015, there was a reason for it. The Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) stated in 2015 that "the absence of nighttime testing [was] a weakness in the current system", specifically regarding the issue of micro-dosing.
