After more than a decade without a major doping scandal, the Tour de France has once again found itself at the centre of an anti-doping debate.

On Sunday, 19 July at 2am, Jonas Vingegaard was roused from his sleep to provide a sample for an anti-doping test. According to Cyclingflash the next morning before the 15th Stage, Vingegaard in an interview with NOS said: “I feel pretty good, but I just didn’t have a good night. I had a doping test at 2 in the morning. That was not the ideal time.”

That day Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour de France while he was riding in second place overall. It was confirmed later that he broke his collarbone. Tadej Pogačar, his main rival who was winning the general classification, suggested the disrupted sleep may have been a contributing factor, saying it could have been "a small percentage" of the reason for the crash. Pogačar had also been tested the same morning, but at a more reasonable hour of 5am. Stage winner Remco Evenepoel called the practice "inhuman".

Vingegaard himself was much more cautious. He said the 2am test "certainly wasn't helpful" but refused to blame it for the crash, adding that crashes are part of cycling and he could not say whether the lack of sleep caused it.

The question has to be asked whether it was really necessary to wake Vingegaard in the middle of the night for an anti-doping test if disrupted sleep has the potential to contribute to fatigue or reduced concentration – particularly in a sport where a momentary lapse can result in a serious crash?

It has to be remembered that cycling has a chequered doping past and that is why the sport's governing body, the UCI, (Union Cycliste Internationale) backed the night tests, stating the "fight against doping is an absolute priority".

It also added: "The UCI of course acknowledges that night-time testing can disrupt riders' rest and recovery, and wishes to reiterate that carrying out such controls outside normal hours remains an exceptional measure, reserved for limited and justified circumstances.”

What were these "limited and justified circumstances"? According to The Athletic, testing between 11pm and 6am is restricted in France, and the ITA must seek permission to do so – in this case from the Parisian public prosecutors' office. The International Cycling Union’s (UCI) rulebook states that a permit can only be granted for out-of-hours tests if there is “serious and specific suspicion that the rider may be engaged in doping.” The specific reason has not been disclosed but it was enough for the out-of-hours tests to be authorised by a local judge.

Why night-time testing? Cannondale-EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters was a teammate of disgraced star Lance Armstrong at the US Postal team in the 1990s when both men took performance-enhancing drugs. He weighed in by saying that earlier use of night-time drug tests could have saved cycling "25 years of drama".

"2am testing is one of the very effective ways ‌to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing," Vaughters wrote on social media.

"If UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale) had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We'd all have ‌been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama."

The practice of micro-dosing drugs such as EPO and human growth hormone has been a long-standing challenge for anti-doping authorities. With micro-dosed substances capable of clearing the body within hours, they believe predictable daytime testing creates opportunities to evade detection.

For me Vaughters summed up the argument when he said:

“It’s unfortunate that Tadej and Jonas have to atone for the s*** we did. However, I’d take some lost sleep for some gained credibility. I should apologise to both of them, honestly.”

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