Night tests would have saved cycling '25 years of drama,' says Vaughters

Jonathan Vaughters, former professional cyclist and team boss, believes that early morning doping tests, like those recently conducted at the Tour de France, could have saved the sport from "25 years of drama." He argued that such controls are effective in preventing the micro-dosing of performance-enhancing drugs like EPO and human growth hormone.

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2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing.

Vaughters, who himself admitted to doping during his career and was a teammate of Lance Armstrong, stated on social media that if the UCI had tested riders at 2 a.m. in 2001, "We'd all have been suspended." His perspective carries weight due to his personal history with doping and his subsequent advocacy for clean racing with his team, Cannondale-EF.

The comments follow complaints from current riders, including Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, who were woken for unannounced doping checks. Vingegaard reported losing sleep before a mountain stage where he later crashed, while Pogačar said he only managed four hours of rest. Stage winner Remco Evenepoel described the practice as "inhuman."

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If UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We'd all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.

The International Testing Agency acknowledged that night-time testing can be disruptive but emphasized its necessity in "limited and justified circumstances" to combat doping practices that are designed to evade daytime-only controls. Anti-doping authorities are concerned about substances that can clear the body within hours, making them difficult to detect with predictable testing schedules.

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inhuman