Ahead of the Tour de France individual time trial, Florian Lipowitz and his team-mates also received a late-night visit from the doping control officers. All eight riders were tested on Monday evening at around 10.00 pm, as a spokesperson for the Red Bull team confirmed to dpa. However, this was not one of the controversial night-time tests that had recently been carried out on Tour winner Tadej Pogacar and fellow favourite Jonas Vingegaard, who had been forced to withdraw following a crash.
“First and foremost, we have a dark history in cycling, which is why it’s good that checks are being carried out here. The fact that checks are being carried out late at night is permitted under the regulations. Of course, it does hinder recovery, but we were also visited last night; some of the riders were already asleep and went through the checks,” Red Bull team principal Ralph Denk told ZDF, adding: “It ensures that our sport is credible and that it is clean, and that’s why it’s part of the process.”
Over the past few days, there had been heated debates about night-time doping checks during the Tour. Ahead of the gruelling mountain stage to the Plateau de Solaison, Vingegaard had been checked at 2.00 am, whilst Pogacar had a knock on his door at 5.00 am. During the following stage, Vingegaard crashed and was forced to withdraw with a broken collarbone. Pogacar speculated that there might have been a connection.
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