Evenepoel criticises doping tests as Vingegaard crashes

Remco Evenepoel criticised "inhuman" middle-of-the night doping tests at the Tour de France after winning stage 15.

The Belgian's comments came as Jonas Vingegaard was woken at 02:00 and race leader Tadej Pogacar at 05:00 local time for tests before Sunday's stage - in which the Dane crashed and broke his collarbone.

Evenepoel said the timing of the tests was "disrespectful" and added: "It's something that actually we should not accept as riders.

"It's quite inhuman to wake us up in the middle of the night."

Vingegaard, 29, will have surgery on his injury and is out of the remainder of the Tour.

Yellow jersey wearer Pogacar was awoken after the Dane at 05:00 to undergo doping controls and suggested the effects of Vingegaard's disrupted sleep could have been a factor in his crash.

"The Tour will not be the same without him," said Pogacar. "It got me thinking, we had doping control they did [at] two in the morning [and] maybe this is also a reason.

"One night [and] your sleep is ruined and you can be a little less concentrated on the descent.

"I don't blame that, but could be also a little bit connected. It's really sad to see him leave."

The International Testing Agency, who carried out the tests, told BBC Sport: "The ITA is conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders' rest and recovery. Due consideration has therefore been given to minimise as much as possible the impact testing activities have on riders.

"However, the ITA, on behalf of the UCI, has the responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the cycling anti-doping program and the integrity of cycling races.

"As such, effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, be capable to occur outside standard daytime hours."

Vingegaard - seen as the only real threat to defending champion and current race leader Pogacar - was tackling a tight right-hand bend off a roundabout when his front wheel slid out, causing him to land on his shoulder.

The concertina effect caused three other riders to catapult over Vingegaard and on to spectators standing on the outside of the corner, with Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro, of Mexico, landing on a woman with crutches who was seated.

The two-time Tour de France champion will now have surgery "in the coming days due to the severity of the fracture", according to a team statement.

His team-mate, American Sepp Kuss, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's Jai Hindley, of Australia, were also involved, but continued.

Vingegaard winced in pain several times as he was put into an ambulance minutes after the crash.

It is a devastating end for a rider who has come into this three-week race in his best form since a debilitating crash in 2024, in which he suffered lung injuries and several bone fractures, and compromised the form which enabled him to beat Pogacar to titles in 2022 and 2023.

Vingegaard showed real promise in the build-up to this Tour after dominant wins in last year's Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour and the Giro d'Italia in May.

But he had lost significant time to Pogacar on stage five's climb up the Col du Tourmalet and Saturday's gruelling stage up Le Markstein in the Vosges mountains.

Slovenia's Pogacar, 27, is aiming this year to become the joint-most successful rider in the Tour's history with five wins, alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

The stage was won unexpectedly by Evenepoel of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe after managing to stay with Pogacar, and then power away from Del Toro.

Evenepoel is widely considered the third-best rider in the world for overall ability for his supreme time trial skills, but typically he suffers on steep climbs.

But on the uncategorised final climb of Sunday's 183.9km stage from Champagnole to Plateau de Solaison, he matched Pogacar for the first time on such parcours.

Evenepoel is favourite to win stage 16 on Tuesday - a 26.1km time trial to Thonon les Bains.

"I'm trembling with the emotion," said the Belgian afterwards. "It was hard in the beginning, but I got better and better during the day.

"You have to understand I am racing the best guy ever [Pogacar] and for me it's a big step forward that I can follow this pace. I always get so many critics saying, 'You cannot survive steep climbs'. So it means a lot."

Pogacar remains in the overall leader's yellow jersey, five minutes ahead of Evenepoel, who is a further 58 seconds clear of Del Toro.

Britain's Tom Pidcock, of Pinarello-Q36.5, was a contender for victory across much of the stage as he was part of a earlier breakaway group that lasted beyond the category one Col de la Croisette climb, alongside American 'hipster rider' Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek, who won the day's super-combatif award.

France's teenage sensation Paul Seixas, of Decathlon-CMA CGM, fought to keep up with the leaders, but lost his youth classification white jersey after coming in fourth, 52 seconds behind Del Toro.

Pogacar kept hold of the King of the Mountains jersey, while Denmark's Mads Pedersen retained the green points jersey.

Tour de France stage 15 results

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4hrs 23mins 9secs

2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) same time

3. Isaac del Toro (Mex/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +6secs

4. Paul Seixas (Fra/Decathlon-CMA CGM) +58secs

5. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) same time

6. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain-Victorious) +1min 57secs

7. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) same time

8. Juan Ayuso (Spa/Lidl-Trek) +2mins

9. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) same time

10. Quinn Simmons (USA/Lidel-Trek) +2mins 26secs

Tour de France general classification after stage 15

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 55hrs 41mins 31secs

2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +5mins

3. Isaac del Toro (Mex/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +5mins 58secs

4. Paul Seixas (Fra/Decathlon-CMA CGM) +6mins 23secs

5. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +6mins 48secs

6. Juan Ayuso (Spa/Lidl-Trek) +7mins 28secs

7. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +9mins 38secs

8. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain-Victorious) +10mins 28secs

9. Tom Pidcock (GB/Pinarello-Q36.5) +11mins 19secs

10. Jordan Jegat (Fra/Total Energies) +19mins 26secs