Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are still leading the race on the Great Loop. So much so that their performances raise questions, in a sport already marked by doping scandals.
Anti-doping controls in cycling began at the end of the 1960s, on the initiative of the Belgian and French cycling federations. AT At the time, research focused on the presence of amphetamines, those stimulants that erased the feeling of fatigue. This substance causes in particular the death of the British Tom Simson in full ascent of Mont Ventoux, 2 km from the finish during the Tour de France 1967, under the eye of television cameras. The drama then triggers a real awareness.
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The UCI (International Cycling Union) begins to carry out official doping controls. But new products appear, such as steroids in the 90s, these synthetic hormones which develop muscles, more difficult to detect than amphetamines.
The World Anti-Doping Agency was created in 1999, just after the 1998 Tour de France scandal during which all the riders of the Festina team were excluded on suspicion of doping. The agency then controls all the sports and does not depend on the sports federations or the states and makes it possible to standardize the controls. In the 2000s, she also went from urine tests to blood tests, which were more precise, since the substances were less diluted in the blood. The device makes it possible to search for EPO, this new product, resulting from advances in biotechnology, which makes it possible to stimulate the production of red blood cells.
The yellow jersey tested every day
AT at the end of the 2000s, the concept of a “biological passport” was born: runners are no longer only tested during competitions, but also outside, three or four times a year, by comparing the results of analyzes from one test to another. If the variations are too great, there is a suspicion of doping.
At most, a rider who tests positive risks being suspended for life and losing his titles. In France, since 1989, a cyclist who tested positive no longer risks a criminal sanction, but only a disciplinary sanction (unlike in the United States for example). Two years of suspension, four if recidivism, and suspension for life if new recidivism. The sanction is pronounced either by the‘French Anti-Doping Agency, or by the UCI (International Cycling Union). On the other hand, selling or possessing doping products is criminally reprehensible.
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Today, in the Tour de France, the yellow jersey is tested every day, as is the winner of the stage upon arrival. Six runners are also drawn to be tested daily.
AT this, in addition to unexpected tests during the Tour and the famous biological passport.
According to biotechnology professor Gérard Dine, it is therefore very complicated today to slip through the cracks. According to him, the origin of the performances of Vingegaard and Pogacar is rather to be sought on the side of the progress made in the equipment, the nutrition and the training of the athletes.