After publicly defending Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard following the anti-doping tests they underwent in the middle of the night, Remco Evenepoel found himself experiencing the same situation at the 2026 Tour de France.

On the eve of the individual time trial, a crucial appointment at the Grande Boucle and on paper particularly favorable to the Belgian, anti-doping inspectors reached the Red Bull–Bora–hansgrohe hotel when the riders were already in their respective rooms. Evenepoel and his teammates were thus forced, after 10 PM, to interrupt their rest to undergo the tests required by protocol.

Team manager Ralph Denk told German television ZDF what happened: "The riders had already gone to bed and then they were subjected to an anti-doping test".

Denk recalled that the procedure is fully compliant with regulations, while acknowledging how an intervention of this kind inevitably compromises the recovery of athletes in a demanding race like the Tour.

Within a few days, then, Evenepoel went from being a defender of Pogačar and Vingegaard to being a protagonist in the same situation. A case that inevitably reignites the debate over where the right balance should be found between the effectiveness of anti-doping controls and the protection of riders' recovery during a Grand Tour.

NOT JUST RED BULL. Confirmation comes from Lidl Trek that yesterday evening around 10 PM the team's riders also received a visit from ITA inspectors who carried out anti-doping tests. And inspectors also visited in the evening Visma Lease a Bike, Nectcompany Ineos, Bahrain Victorious, Caja Rural RGA Seguros, NSN Cycling Team, XdS Astana and Tudor Pro Cycling. To the list, as teams confirmed, were added PicNic-PostNL, Jayco AlUla, Groupama-FDJ United, Alpecin-Premier Tech, Cofidis and Decathlon CMA CGM. For the record, Paul Seixas's team was tested shortly after 8 PM.

TESTS. Many questions are being asked by readers and fans about these controls: obviously it's impossible to know what substances will be searched for, whether tests are the same for everyone or not. It's impossible to know with certainty, unless they revealed it themselves as in the cases mentioned above, the names of the riders subjected to testing. And above all, it's impossible to know the timeframes in which the test results will be made official, which could also be entrusted to different laboratories.

OTHER NIGHTS. Meanwhile, sources who preferred to remain anonymous confirmed to Cycling Weekly that at least two other teams were subjected to tests at 5 AM during the Tour, one in the first week and one in the second week. Neither the teams in question ever made this official, nor did the ITA Agency announce that it had sought a judge's ruling, as happened instead for Vingegaard and Pogačar.