Jonas Vingegaard Crashes Out of the Tour de France After Late-Night Doping Test

What Happened to Vingegaard?

Imagine you are riding your bike in a huge race, you fall off, and now you need to go to the hospital. That is what happened to Jonas Vingegaard.

• He is a rider who has won the Tour de France two times before.
• He also won another big bike race called the Giro d’Italia this year.
• On Sunday, during the first mountain stage in the Alps (a big rocky place with high climbs), he crashed.
• He fell when the main group of riders (called the peloton) was leaving a roundabout in a town called Bonneville.
• After the fall, he got into a race ambulance with his right arm in a sling (a cloth that holds your arm still).
• He will have surgery (an operation) on his collarbone (the bone near your shoulder) in the next few days.

Important Point: Vingegaard is out of the Tour de France because of this crash, and he got hurt only hours after being woken up super early for a drug test.

The Surprise Middle-of-the-Night Drug Tests

Before that stage, something weird happened. Riders are normally tested for banned drugs between 6am and 11pm. But this time:

• Vingegaard was woken at 2am by testers from the International Testing Agency (ITA), which is the group that checks riders for cheating.
• His rival Tadej Pogacar was woken at 5am for the same kind of check.
• These tests happened outside the normal time, as the race was going to a place called Plateau de Solaison in the Savoyard Alps.

Pogacar said Vingegaard’s 2am wake-up was “inhuman” (not fair or kind to a human). He thought it “ruined” Vingegaard’s sleep and might have caused the crash.

Before the stage, Vingegaard said: “I was sleeping very well. It’s good that they test, but when it’s affecting performance and your sleep, I don’t think it’s so good.”

Pogacar also said: getting woken at 5am was not great, but at least he got his deep sleep first. He said the 2am knock could be “a small percentage” of why Vingegaard crashed because he probably slept badly.

How Did the Race Go After the Crash?

Even though Pogacar was woken early too, he still rode really well.

• He led the final big climb with two friends from his team: Isaac del Toro and Remco Evenepoel.
• At the same time, Vingegaard was slowly climbing steps to the moving hospital bus of the Tour, holding his sore arm.
• But Pogacar did not win the stage. Evenepoel, from Belgium, won the sprint at the end.
• Two other riders, Paul Seixas and Florian Lipowitz, tried to catch up but lost almost a minute in the overall time ranking.

Now Evenepoel is in second place overall, right behind Pogacar.

Why Are Night Tests Allowed?

The ITA shared a statement explaining their side:

• They know night testing can mess up a rider’s rest and recovery.
• They try to make the impact as small as possible.
• But they must protect the race from cheating (doping) to keep it fair.

The rules from the UCI (the big boss group of bike racing) say tests outside 6am–11pm can happen if there is a “serious and specific suspicion” a rider might be doping. That means they need a good reason.

Other teams said they also got tested as early as 5am during the Tour.

Pogacar said the testing pattern lately was “strange.” At home since January, he woke at 6am daily worrying testers would ring his doorbell. He said if it proves riders are clean, he accepts it, but sleeping only four hours is rough.

Important Point: Riders accept drug testing to show they are clean, but many feel middle-of-the-night tests are disrespectful and hurt their only chance to recover: sleep.

What Did Evenepoel Say?

Evenepoel is known for saying what he thinks.

• He said he would send his team at 3am to wake the testers and take their blood, just so they feel it.
• He called it “inhuman” and said athletes should not accept it.
• He said sleep is the only night recovery for riders, and disturbing it is disrespectful.

Summary

Jonas Vingegaard, a two-time Tour de France winner, crashed on an Alpine stage and will have collarbone surgery. He had been woken at 2am for a drug test, while Pogacar was woken at 5am. Pogacar and Evenepoel say night tests are unfair and may have played a role in the crash. The ITA says such tests are rare but needed to keep racing honest. Evenepoel won the stage and is now second overall behind Pogacar.

FAQ

1. Who is Jonas Vingegaard?
He is a bike racer who won the Tour de France two times and also won the Giro d’Italia this year. He crashed out of the 2026 Tour and hurt his collarbone.

2. Why were riders tested in the middle of the night?
The ITA did unexpected tests outside the normal 6am–11pm window. Rules allow this if there is a strong suspicion of doping, to keep the race fair.

3. Did the night test cause the crash?
We don’t know for sure. Pogacar said bad sleep from the 2am test could be a small reason Vingegaard crashed, but it was not proven.

4. Who won the stage where Vingegaard crashed?
Remco Evenepoel won that stage. Pogacar came with him but could not pass him at the end.

5. What did the testers say about night testing?
The ITA said they know it disrupts rest but must do it sometimes to protect the sport. They follow rules that respect rider welfare and rights.