Tour de France stage 15 winner Remco Evenepoel has pulled no punches about his feelings regarding the night time anti-doping testing of race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who subsequently crashed out of the race.
Evenepoel's triumph and fine display of climbing at the end of the second week, coupled with the abandon of Vingegaard, has seen the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader move up to second overall. After all the criticism regarding his climbing on the toughest ascents, scoring a win on a climb as difficult as the Plateau de Solaison is a landmark moment in his career.
However, the night-time testing of both Pogačar and Vingegaard was also raised in Evenepoel's winner's press conference, and the Belgian made it clear he felt controls in the small hours of the morning had no place in Grand Tours.
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The possibility that Vingegaard might have been affected by the timing of the testing during the race itself was not a subject that Evenepoel was willing to address. The whole issue of testing during a period of rest, though, was one about which he had very clear feelings.
"I can't speak for the guys about their focus and how they manage competition, I only think I can say it is very disrespectful to wake up guys at 2 AM and 5 AM," Evenepoel said.
"The CPA [riders association] has to do something about that. It is inhuman to wake us up, we had a long transfer, and to wake them up like that is pretty disrespectful. "
"If I had had it [a night-time test] I would send my team to wake them up at two in the night because it's inhuman. It's something we could and should not accept."
"Sleep is the only moment we have to recover. This is the hardest race in the world, it makes it even harder. It's a shame it had to happen, and I hope it doesn't happen any more."
If Evenepoel firmly condemned the timing of the tests and Vingegaard's untimely exit from the Tour cast a long shadow over the stage itself, that could not detract, either, from the scale of his achievements on the Plateau de Salaison, managing to outpower both race leader Pogačar and teammate Isaac del Toro for a stage win.
Summit victory marks milestone
On a personal level, Evenepoel's first-ever victory outside a time trial in the Tour de France marked a milestone in many ways. It pushed back against the repeated insinuations that he is unable to climb with the best - and this on a climb where, less than a month ago, Del Toro had delivered a searing mountain performance to claim the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes outright.
At the same time, his victory also put to rest the doubts after days on Le Lioran and again in the Vosges, where Evenepoel had difficulties staying with the best on some of the late ascents. As the race enters its third week, Evenepoel seems to be hitting the climbing heights right on time.
Red Bull's powerful pace on the first half of the Solaison ascent made it clear that Evenepoel was on a good day, but the fact he could both stay with Pogačar and Del Toro all the way to the line - and was the only rider to do so when Pogačar accelerated - made his ride all the more impressive.
"Our idea was to keep the pace as long as possible, at least 7, 8 kilometres into the climb, but then Tadej put down a high pace, and I knew I had to follow," Evenepoel explained.
"It was going really fast, but like I said this morning, today was a climb to go all out to the finish. However, in the last six kilometres I felt I could really recover, I had some confidence in my sprint, particularly when Del Toro made his last attack. It was a good tactic for today's victory."
Up until now, every summit victory in the 2026 Tour has either gone Pogačar's way, or he has set things up for his teammate Del Toro as he did on stage 2 in Barcelona's Montjuic Park. This time round, though, after four stage wins for the Slovenian, it was Evenepoel's turn to clinch the triumph.
"For the last few years, Tadej has just been outstanding; whenever he's got a chance of the win, he grabs it," Evenepoel observed. "So whenever there is an opportunity, you have to grab it, and try to do it."
"For me, on such a hard climb, it's a new experience, and of course it needs good preparation," he added, pointing out that he had needed two months away from competition - from Liège through to the Tour - to be able to go above his previous limit in the mountains.
"With the shape and body I have, it's not like performances like this just come naturally, but whenever I can do it, I have to go for it."
His intimate knowledge of Solaison as a climb, he recognised, was definitely a factor in his favour. Evenepoel has used the area as a training base, and he said he had done the lower, tougher part of the climb on many occasions. Although he did not take part in the Tour Auvergne-Rhòne-Alpes this June - yet another decision that was questioned at the time - when he finally rode up the Solaison in anger, that prior knowledge paid dividends.
"I was on a training camp around 40 kms from here, so it was only had one hour to come here, and I did a lot of high intensity work on this one," he said, "particularly the hardest part in the first half."
"I knew I had a good chance. That always motivates you. And to have this going into the TT day is amazing, too, for sure it's a benefit."
Best known as a time triallist, but with the versatility that has seen him take multiple Classics wins and, of course, the Vuelta a España, Evenepoel has had multiple summit finish wins in his career, ranging from a sprint duel on the Alto do Foia in the Volta ao Algarve way back in 2020 to Andorra in the Vuelta in 2023 and beyond. However, as his first in the Tour de France, and against such illustrious opposition into the bargain, his Solaison triumph can only be seen as a landmark moment in an already glittering career.
"Of course it's another type of victory," Evenepoel said when asked how it compared with triumphs as notable as Olympic gold or Monument wins, "but this one ranks really high."
"To win a mountain stage in the Tour ahead of one of the best riders ever, to be the only one to stay with Isaac, who won on this mountain and who's one of the best riders in the world, it's crazy. It's one of my most beautiful victories."
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