![\"Pogacar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285579095-scaled-e1784461558225-1024x682.jpg\")
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The pair are leading the general classification ahead of stage 15 Jeff Pachoud\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
July 19, 2026 Updated 8:31 am EDT<\/p>\n
Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard were woken up by drug testers in the middle of the night ahead of Sunday\u2019s crucial mountain stage to Plateau de Solaison.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) was woken at 2am, followed by Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) three hours later, with the tests carried out by the International Testing Agency (ITA), sport\u2019s independent anti-doping body.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t get back to sleep,\u201d said Pogacar before stage 15, revealing that he had only had four hours of sleep after going to bed at 1am. \u201cI spent the time (in the morning) listening to old Eminem songs and making coffee. I feel sorry for the guys who have to wake us up. They are just doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unannounced tests have been allowed at the Tour since 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess the ITA didn\u2019t allow me to sleep much,\u201d Vingegaard told TNT Sports. \u201cI was sleeping very well but then somebody knocked on my door at 2am. Big surprise to me but of course I mean it\u2019s good that they test, but when it\u2019s affecting performance and your sleep I don\u2019t think it\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully also in the end I\u2019m not the only one because it has to be equal for everybody. It\u2019s not the nicest at two o\u2019clock. It took about 40 minutes before I was back in my room. It was not the best night. Still feel ok but just not the best night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vingegaard\u2019s teammate Matteo Jorgenson was more outspoken.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asked to keep my opinion on this to myself,\u201d the American said. \u201cBut this is a complete lack of respect for the riders. We are focusing heavily on recovery. That is hugely important, especially between two of the toughest mountain stages in this Tour. And then you get woken up at 2 am. That makes me really furious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pogacar leads the Tour by four minutes and 30 seconds over Vingegaard, the largest gap entering the race\u2019s final week since Vincenzo Nibali\u2019s victory in 2014, with further gaps expected on stage 15\u2019s ascent of Plateau de Solaison.<\/p>\n
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Jul 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
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Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pair are leading the general classification ahead of stage 15 Jeff Pachoud\/AFP via Getty Images July 19,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,5,3357,354],"class_list":["post-53594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-global-sports","tag-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}