Updated July 6, 2026 01:51 pm
2026 tour de france It started last Saturday, July 4 with a team time trial Through the streets of Barcelona – yes, He Barcelona. This year the first three stages of the Tour were held in Spain.
And as anyone who studied college abroad in Europe will tell you, July is incredibly sweaty on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. Temperatures in Barcelona topped 90 degrees at the start of the Tour, and the rising heat produced one of the most hilarious moments in recent Tour memory.
Yes, this includes the above image. I’d like you to take a break from reading and take a deeper look at the screengrabs. ask your mind once what am i looking at? You can come back.
Well, these are the riders of British team NetCompany-Ineos, brilliantly dressed in their aerodynamic helmets and bodysuits, preparing for a scorching time trial by soaking their arms in cold water to escape the Barcelona heat.
Context is everything in both cycling and comedy, so please let me explain to you all Why This photo is the funniest thing ever to a seasoned Tour de France fan like me.
A decade ago, Team NetCompany-Ineos was named after its previous sponsor, the British broadcaster sky tv. Team Sky led the Tour by winning the race’s coveted yellow jersey seven times between 2012 and 2019, with four different riders: Bradley Wiggins (2012), Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017), Geraint Thomas (2018), and Egan Bernal (2019). It was an unprecedented era of dominance in Tour history.
Team Sky was managed by a cadre of British coaches. You might assume that the country’s characteristic cultural love of humility and self-deprecation would lead them to adopt an outward attitude of humility or modesty. Wrong. The Team Sky boss was extremely arrogant.
In interviews, public addresses and even Harvard Business Review StoriesTeam Sky’s owners took an attitude – and I’m summarizing it here– We are very smart, nya nya nya nya nya. I was the editor of Cycling Magazine velonews At that time, and because of the cocky attitude of the team, I got a front row seat.
This sentiment stems from Team Sky’s dogma of the so-called “marginal advantage” as a way to win. Again, I’m paraphrasing here, but the overall feeling was this. Amidst the standardization in racing strategies, the best way to win the Tour de France was to gain small advantages at the margins of the sport, such as with gear, training, and even pillows.
pillows? Yes. When traveling in the Tour, Team Sky brought its own mattresses, pillows and duvet covers for its riders, arguing that France’s network of hotels had the beds. Take yak, And even an extra hour of sleep can mean the difference between victory and defeat. The squad also brought their own washing machines to the race, as French laundromats were reportedly contaminated with God knows what, and the cleaner-than-usual lycra bodysuits represented another minor advantage.
Team Sky made several other marginal gains by listing everything in one place. The team hired an army of chefs and nutritionists who ensured that every morsel of food went towards the rider’s recovery and energy reserves. The squad worked with bike brands to develop more efficient chain lubes, bike seats, bodysuits, and of course bicycles. Every piece of fancy new gear except mattresses and quilts was tested in a wind tunnel and weighed within a millionth of a gram.
David Brailsford, the team’s primary architect, said, “The whole concept came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of about riding a bike and then improved it by 1 percent, then putting them all together would give you significant improvements.” told BBC in 2012.
Each new marginal benefit was the subject of an interview or discussion, and these Type-A doodads were often unveiled dramatic methods online. Of course, much of Team Sky’s public focus on marginal profits obscured the fact that the team had the largest budget in the sport, and outsold other Tour de France teams by a wide margin.
So this brings us back to 2026 and Barcelona. In a public demonstration he was Very Team Sky-coded, NetCompany-Ineos achieved their pre-time-trial marginal advantage shortly before the start of the race. Reporters from the Cyclingnews website were there to document the whole thing: :
“A team of five arrived at the warm-up area behind the start ramp with a trolley full of gear. The crowd gathered and watched in confusion as the crew proceeded to unfold eight folding tables, place them in front of a row of chairs, place giant plastic tubs on top of them, and fill them with water measuring up to a typical 8.8 °C (47.84 °F).”
No, there was no customized pillow. No wind tunnel-tested bike lube. No battalions of expensive cooks delivering customized meals. Sure, like, there’s some cold water floating around in the type of cheap plastic storage bins you or I might use to store obsolete phone chargers or cat food. The setup looked like a science fair exhibition for first grade students. Or what you’ll come up with after a frustrating trip to the Container Store.
Here’s the best part. Cyclingnews journalists asked team representatives what was happening with the tubs filled with water, but the staff remained silent.
“You’ll see,” a team employee told him.
Alas, how the mighty have fallen. In Barcelona, NetCompany–Ineos lost the individual time trial, finishing eight seconds behind winner Visma–Lease-a-Bike.
