Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has dismissed accusations that the race's anti-doping programme favours French riders, insisting the independent testing agency "is doing the job it's paid to do."

Speaking at the start of stage 18 in Voiron on July 23, Prudhomme addressed a controversy that has simmered through the second week of the 2026 Tour. The row centres on night-time drug tests conducted by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the body responsible for policing cheating in the sport. Riders have been woken in the small hours to provide urine and blood samples — a practice some have called disruptive, others have hinted is applied unevenly.

The spark came from Matej Mohoric, the Slovenian rider for Bahrain Victorious, who implied in an interview earlier in July that 19-year-old French rider Paul Seixas had avoided a night-time test. Seixas, a teenager riding high in the general classification — the overall standings that determine the race winner — has been one of the revelations of this Tour.

Prudhomme's response was blunt. He told The Guardian that the ITA is independent, that he is not informed about its testing plans beforehand, and that he should not be. "The ITA is doing the job it's paid to do," he said. He also pointed to history: the 2008 Tour de France was run under the authority of the French Cycling Federation rather than the UCI — cycling's global governing body — specifically so that independent anti-doping controls could be carried out without conflict of interest.

The night-time tests have touched the race's biggest names. Tadej Pogacar, the Slovenian closing in on a record-equalling fifth Tour win, was tested at 5am on a Sunday morning. Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time champion who has since abandoned this year's race, was tested at 2am the same night.

The UCI weighed in on July 22 with a statement calling the ITA's work evidence that "the fight against doping is an absolute priority." It described night-time testing as "an exceptional measure, reserved for limited and justified circumstances," while acknowledging the controls can disrupt riders' rest and recovery. The governing body's position: that disruption is outweighed by the overriding interest of catching cheats.

Prudhomme himself questioned whether such pre-dawn testing would be tolerated in other sports. He cited football — the world's most popular — as an example where night-time controls are not routine, drawing an implicit contrast with the scrutiny cycling accepts.

The backdrop is a Tour already shaped by drama. Vingegaard's abandonment removed one of the race's defining rivalries. Pogacar now marches toward a fifth yellow jersey, which would draw him level with the all-time greats. And in Seixas, French fans have a home rider riding high — exactly the kind of storyline that draws suspicion in a sport scarred by decades of doping scandals.

For cycling, that suspicion is the tax on hope. A 19-year-old Frenchman climbing the standings is a feel-good story; it is also, inevitably, a question. Prudhomme's answer is that the testing exists precisely to answer it — and that no one, including him, gets to steer who is checked and when.