ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS – Start lines of Tour de France time trials can be comparatively sleepy affairs compared to the usual hustle and bustle of regular road stages. Riders drift in and out, and – especially at the start of the day – most are looking less for a result than to check off another day of the race and head back to bed.
That was not the case on the morning before stage 16's race against the clock, where the drip-feed of known teams who'd had late-night knocks from the industrious ITA anti-doping testers grew with each passing moment. Topping it off, it went from some teams to all teams: Cycling Weekly reported late on Tuesday that all 166 riders in the peloton were tested on the Monday rest day. According to Cycling Weekly, the checks were between 8-11 pm; late evening but within the 6 am to 11 pm testing window normally allotted for testing.
Now, riders are tested all the time, to the point that this fact alone, volume of the tests excepted, is largely unremarkable. But between the admitted dearth of intrigue in this year's race and the way this story has played out so far means it may be more than your regular press-room storm in a teacup.
Caley Fretz
After Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard's early-Sunday morning door knocks spirited the story into life, news slowly dripped out of which teams had been tested and when. Today, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe boss Ralph Denk confirmed his team had all been tested at 10 pm on Monday's rest day.
Like the others tested on the rest day, this was more in the realms of 'business as usual' compared to the much rarer 11 pm-6 am window, where tests are supposed to only be permitted under "serious and specific suspicion" of a rider. EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters also told us this morning that his team had been tested at the same time as Red Bull.
Question, then: Is this a storm in a teacup handed on a platter to a bored press room, or the beginning of something more substantial?
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