Ben Healy had just crossed the finish line of stage 11 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, July 16, in Toulouse, when he began another race that would last over an hour. The Irishman, who kept his yellow jersey after completing the loop in Haute-Garonne, complied with the obligations required of the general classification leader: a stop at the protocol podium, then a press conference, and finally a visit to the International Testing Agency (ITA) truck for a doping check at the end of the day.
“It’s a long process; sometimes, some riders are really eager to use the restroom when they arrive,” said a smiling Pascal Eeckhout, who has worked for the Tour since 2008. Each day, he and his colleagues supervise urine tests for the stage winner and the yellow jersey holder, whose bikes are also analyzed. The ITA may also summon other peloton members at its discretion or go directly to their hotels to collect blood samples. During the three weeks of racing, the agency collects 600 samples.
The ITA has led this anti-doping effort on behalf of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI, the international cycling’s governing body) since January 2021. “An independent authority had to issue the program to eliminate real or perceived conflicts of interest,” explained Valérie Fourneyron, the sports minister during François Hollande’s five-year presidential term and now the president of the agency since its creation in 2018.
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