Remco Evenepoel criticised “inhuman” middle-of-the night doping tests at the Tour de France after winning stage 15.
The Belgian’s comments came as race leader Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard were woken up at 02:00 and 05:00 local time before Sunday’s stage – in which Vingegaard crashed and broke his collarbone.
Evenepoel said the timing of the tests was “disrespectful” and added: “It’s something that actually we should not accept as riders.
“It’s quite inhuman to wake us up in the middle of the night.”
Vingegaard, 29, will have surgery on his injury and is out of the remainder of the Tour.
Yellow jersey wearer Pogacar was awoken after the Dane at 05:00 to undergo doping controls and suggested the effects of Vingegaard’s disrupted sleep could have been a factor in his crash.
“The Tour will not be the same without him,” said Pogacar. “It got me thinking, we had doping control they did [at] two in the morning [and] maybe this is also a reason.
“One night [and] your sleep is ruined and you can be a little less concentrated on the descent.
“I don’t blame that, but could be also a little bit connected. It’s really sad to see him leave.”
The International Testing Agency, who carried out the tests, told BBC Sport: “The ITA is conscious that night-time testing may be disruptive to riders’ rest and recovery. Due consideration has therefore been given to minimise as much as possible the impact testing activities have on riders.
“However, the ITA, on behalf of the UCI, has the responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the cycling anti-doping program and the integrity of cycling races.
“As such, effective testing must, in limited and justified circumstances, be capable to occur outside standard daytime hours.”
Vingegaard – seen as the only real threat to defending champion and current race leader Pogacar – was tackling a tight right-hand bend off a roundabout when his front wheel slid out, causing him to land on his shoulder.
The concertina effect caused three other riders to catapult over Vingegaard and on to spectators standing on the outside of the corner, with Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Isaac del Toro, of Mexico, landing on a woman with crutches who was seated.
The two-time Tour de France champion will now have surgery “in the coming days due to the severity of the fracture”, according to a team statement.
His team-mate, American Sepp Kuss, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley, of Australia, were also involved, but continued.
Vingegaard winced in pain several times as he was put into an ambulance minutes after the crash.
It is a devastating end for a rider who has come into this three-week race in his best form since a debilitating crash in 2024, in which he suffered lung injuries and several bone fractures, and compromised the form which enabled him to beat Pogacar to titles in 2022 and 2023.
Vingegaard showed real promise in the build-up to this Tour after dominant wins in last year’s Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour and the Giro d’Italia in May.
But he had lost significant time to Pogacar on stage five’s climb up the Col du Tourmalet and Saturday’s gruelling stage up Le Markstein in the Vosges mountains.
Slovenia’s Pogacar, 27, is aiming this year to become the joint-most successful rider in the Tour’s history with five wins, alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.