Pee-Gate: Pro Cyclists Are Changing How They Urinate In The Tour de France

We have another pee-gate in the peloton.

The UCI handed French racer Hugo Page a 500 CHF ($615 USD) penalty for what race jurors called “unseemly or inappropriate behavior (urinating in public during the race) and damaging the image of the sport” during stage 17 Wednesday.

He is the first rider in the 2026 Tour de France to be slapped with a fine for that reason.

What happened? Velo caught up with whizz kid Page, who was up in the break that day and finished 12th as Jasper Philipsen rocketed to victory in Voiron.

Paying the price for a pacy race

“The race is getting faster and faster and at a certain moment, I wasn’t able to stop to pee at the side of the road when it’s going full gas,” he told Velo.

“We’re going all-out for two hours and need a nature break. I tried to do it where there were as few people as possible because I thought about being respectful, but when you’re on the Tour and there are spectators every 100 meters, it’s really complicated.”

Page said that he tried to hold off but if he had stopped, he’d be out of the day’s key breakaway. He urinated off the bike, like other members of the large stage 17 escape.

“Sometimes I wonder if the commissaires have ever ridden a bike in their lives,” he added.

Fines for urination are often handed out when the act is committed in front of a member of the public.

Page ended up being hit in the wallet. Well, not exactly his: the team paid the fine – but Page said he bought the staff beers that night.

Urine the news again

This is the latest nature break story making headlines. In May at the Giro d’Italia, the UCI issued a bizarre warning on stage 9, informing all riders that “urinating into a bottle and subsequently discarding it is strictly prohibited”.

Victor Campenaerts came forward as a culprit of this technique, which the Visma-Lease a Bike rider claimed was better than peeing in front of people and exposing himself.

“They say you can’t pee in the bidons, now we can’t go on the road anymore,” Page says. “Next time, maybe they should put spots with toilets every 50 kilometers.”

Your move, UCI. Time for designated pee zones?

Too fast to stop for a pee

There have been far fewer pee penalties this year than other editions: in 2021, there were 15 fines handed out, as reported by Escape Collective.

In the name of hard-hitting investigative reporting, Velo quizzed the Tour peloton on their tactics for nature breaks.

Jayco Alula veteran Luke Durbridge reckons the reason is because “no-one can stop. The race is so fast. I think I’ve stopped on the side of the road two or three times this entire race [up to stage 18].

“You can’t, if you’re doing 55ks an hour, with 100k to go, it’s crazy.”

The ploys for peeing pedallers

Another reason is the temperatures this July which have been as hot as the pace. NSN Cycling Team racer George Bennett talks about being “chronically dehydrated” so it has not been an issue for the New Zealand.

When there is a moment to pause to water the plants, many riders are wary of spoiling the experience for the public as they ride past.

“Because the pace is so high, I like to piss on the bike,” Jayco Alula rider Luke Durbridge tells Velo. “You’ve just to try and find a section where there’s no public.”

Easier said than done at the Tour.

“It’s not easy – if you’ve got to cut it off early, you’ve got to cut it off early. You don’t want to be showing anything,” Durbridge, who is racing his last Tour de France before retirement, says.

That often means a midstream pause. “You might sit on it and go a little bit in your chamois, but I’d much prefer that than on a little kid on the side of the road!” he says, laughing.

Forests, fields and away from fans

Former US road race champion Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) says he has never been penalized for peeing in public.

“I think it’s easy for riders to just see the race as a race and forget that you’re showing your genitals to someone’s face,” Quinn says. “It’s not the most polite thing.”

Quinn tries to find a part through a forest or a downhill through a field where there is almost never a fan.

“I think the UCI is cracking down on smaller stuff like this,” he adds.

So, Hugo Page has been fined and the peloton has been warned – be careful when and where you pee.