![\"Estimated](\"https:\/\/www.bicycling.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/fre\/static\/icons\/clock-regular.4ddebeb.svg\")
3 min read<\/p>\n3 min read<\/p>\n
Tour de France<\/a> riders travel more than 3,000 kilometers (that\u2019s more than 2,000 miles) at lightning fast speeds over the 21 stages, climbing<\/a> and descending massive mountains, and finishing their days with furious sprints. To spend all those hours in the saddle, pushing their limits and working incredibly hard, they have to take in a whole lot of water<\/a> and sports drinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mother Nature calls on all of us, and she doesn\u2019t ignore pro riders. So, exactly, how do Tour de France riders pee? We got the intel.<\/p>\n The Tour de France King Even Rules Peeing<\/p>\n In the Tour and many other big races, the guy wearing the yellow jersey<\/a> is king. If he has to go, he can call a bathroom break whenever he desires, Stephen Hall, professional track and criterium<\/a> cyclist and a stage winner at the 2015 Tour of Thailand tells Bicycling. When that happens, all the riders take advantage of the break.<\/p>\n The peloton will slow up a bit out of respect for the race leader, and he\u2019ll pull over to the side of the road. Once his business is finished, he\u2019ll work with his team or others to navigate back to pack.<\/p>\n If the pace<\/a> is more leisurely, riders pull to the side of the road, pull their shorts<\/a> down just like you would underwear and do their business, retired pro cyclist Ted King, who\u2019s ridden the Tour de France several times, tells Bicycling. During a neutral roll out, King says there\u2019s plenty of time to catch back on to the peloton before the race starts in earnest.<\/p>\n Once the pace picks up, riders still use this tactic to pee while racing. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to wait for a lull in the race when a big fraction of the peloton pulls to the side of the road rather than doing it solo because that solo chase is tough!\u201d King adds.<\/p>\n How Tour de France Riders Master the Art of Peeing While Riding<\/p>\n Nature calling doesn\u2019t mean riders even have to slow down. If there\u2019s no break in sight, some riders will gather up teammates to give them a push while they relieve themselves from the bike. (Too much information? Maybe, but now you\u2019ll know why riders sometimes look awkward when they\u2019re coasting.)<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re peeing to the right, your right leg is in a 6 o\u2019clock position, left at 12, left hand on the handlebars, right hand holds the shorts down, and you coast while relieving yourself,\u201d King says.<\/p>\n Alternatively, riders will sprint<\/a> off the front and get ahead of the peloton to take a break. That way, by the time they\u2019re done, the field has caught up, and they\u2019re ready to join back in.<\/p>\n Tim de Waele\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Tour de France cyclists can always stop at the side of the road, but they need to make sure they\u2019re out of view of spectators<\/a> or they risk getting fined. That\u2019s what happened to Belgian rider Johan Vansummeren, who was fined three different times for urinating in front of fans in 2010.<\/p>\n Plus, you\u2019ll waste time and energy making up time through the team cars if you hold back too much. \u201cGenerally speaking, you\u2019re better off peeing down your leg than using too much energy flapping around in the convoy,\u201d Hall says. What to Do If You Need to Pee While Riding<\/p>\n If you anticipate being in a race situation where you\u2019ll need a bathroom break, Hall recommends practicing safe peeing during descents<\/a> to avoid stage fright come race time. The same rule applies that you use for snot rockets: Make sure the coast is clear behind you.<\/p>\n By the way, don\u2019t think not drinking is going to get you off the hook; if you try that, you\u2019ll have to deal with a wealth of other issues related to dehydration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, on a training ride, there\u2019s no need to pee on your bike. Just convince the group to slow down and wait for you while you dart behind a tree. Best case scenario: You plan your routes for training rides<\/a> with adequate bathroom stops along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3 min read Tour de France riders travel more than 3,000 kilometers (that\u2019s more than 2,000 miles) at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30375,5,7271],"class_list":["post-51872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cupdate","tag-france","tag-supes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"cycling](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/36th-tour-of-san-juan-2018-stage-4-rafal-majka-michal-kolar-news-photo-1718894099.jpg\" "\\"Cycling:")
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