Team Visma boss says Tour de France is "rigged" after late-night anti-doping controls that affected Vingegaard

Marc Reef, former cyclist, current Race Coach and future Head of Racing at Team Visma - Lease a Bike starting in September, has criticised the anti-doping controls at the Tour de France that the top cyclists, Jonas Vingegaard from Visma and Tadej Pogacar from rival team UAE Emirates had to undergo in the middle of the night, saying that he thinks "it's rigged".

Both cyclists, who were first and second in the Grand Tour, had to undergo surprise anti-doping controls late at night, in the night between Saturday and Sunday, disrupting their sleep and recovery. According to Le Parisien, Pogacar had a surprise control at 5:00 AM while Vingegaard had a surprise test at 2:00 AM.

Speaking in De Telegraaf (via AS), Reef said "I think this is rigged. Vingegaard and Pogacar are woken up in the middle of the night while the rest can sleep in. I think this is unfair competition."

However, according to other outlets like Kicker, other favourite cyclists have also been subject to surprise controls in the night, including Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz and all cyclists from Red Bull.

Reef added that for him, "the timing of the controls was very strange", but did not state if the controls could have had an influence in Vingegaard's fall on Sunday, the following stage after the control, in which he fell, broke his collarbone and had to withdraw. "Whether this could have influenced his crash is something we'll never be able to determine, so I'm not going to say anything about it."