{"id":61767,"date":"2026-08-05T14:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/61767\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:20:08","slug":"tour-de-france-femmes-teams-accused-of-using-padded-bras-for-an-aerodynamic-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/61767\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Femmes Teams Accused of Using Padded Bras for an Aerodynamic Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who remembers cycling\u2019s doping scandals<\/a> knows that it\u2019s a highly competitive sport in which every athlete is trying to eke out the slightest advantage they possibly can. The watchful eye of sport regulators has always come down hard on the men, but women cyclists participating in the Tour de France Femmes can be just as sneaky about gaining an advantage wherever they can.<\/p>\n

Case in point: according to the Dutch cycling news outlet Wielerflits<\/a>, female racers might have been using overstuffed bras to gain an aerodynamic advantage.<\/p>\n

Before today\u2019s 21-kilometer individual time trial, race organizers announced racers were going to have their clothing inspected. Why? Some suspected that some might be wearing extra padding in their bras that lets wind more smoothly glide over a racer\u2019s chest, reducing drag and letting them slice through the road with a bit more ease.<\/p>\n

Cycling Officials Check Riders\u2019 Bras Amid Aerodynamic Advantage Concerns<\/p>\n

The sport\u2019s governing body, the UCI, already has bans in place for \u201cnon-essential\u201d clothing or accessories that alter a rider\u2019s shape to improve aerodynamics. In a sport where victory can be measured in fractions of a second, every little bit of reduced drag can make a massive difference. Especially as that time builds up over the course of 730 miles spread out between nine stages.<\/p>\n

Chest fairings have been used by male and female racers for years. They\u2019ve been shown to reduce air resistance meaningfully enough for the results to show up in race times. Riders have spent years experimenting with all sorts of ways to reduce drag in their chests, with bra padding just being another in a long line of tricks, alongside ice socks that are tucked into jerseys before races. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering what an ice sock is, it\u2019s exactly what it sounds like. It\u2019s a sock filled with ice that serves the dual purpose of cooling down a rider while also providing an aerodynamic boost.<\/p>\n

According to Dutch outlet Wielerflits<\/a>, teams requested more thorough inspections, including checks by female race officials to be sure riders weren\u2019t inflating their cup sizes to provide an aerodynamic boost.<\/p>\n

In a sport where the difference between winner and loser can be mere millimeters, bramaxxing might be giving some cyclists an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who remembers cycling\u2019s doping scandals knows that it\u2019s a highly competitive sport in which every athlete is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1497,6,10591,8007],"class_list":["post-61767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-france","tag-life","tag-news","tag-trending","tag-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61767","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=61767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}