What do tour de france riders do when they have to use the bathroom?

Question

i was watching the tour de france and i really had to pee. and i wondered.... "what do the riders do when they use the bathroom?" because they cant stop or they will loose their place. so does anyone know?

Answer 1

Simple.  They get off their bike and pee on the side of the road.  Their team might stop to bring them back to the peleton when they are done.

Answer 2

in the first week you'll see the riders take what's called a "natural break".  Usually the person in the yellow jersey will decide when a break is needed and the entire peloton pulls over, relieve themselves, then back on the bike and start riding again.

Attacking during a natural break is extremely frowned upon and you'd end up with 179 other riders chasing you down and proceeding to be extremely rude to you for the rest of the season.  The pros ride alongside each other all year long-- a few minutes off the front of the pack isn't worth it.

Answer 3

If you listen to the commentators, they refer to this as a "nature call" and the guys just pull up the leg of their shorts and let go - while riding!  (They often drop back to do this so as not to spray the peloton.)

Answer 4

Well, us distance runners pretty much sweat it all out so it can't be that much different.

Answer 5

Sometimes a group of riders will come together, ride side by side, and let the one in the middle whip it out and urinate.  Anything more than that and the portapotty is used

Answer 6

Just like this....http://www.bikecal.com/tdf99/pee.jpg

Answer 7

they roll their shorts to expose themselves, then stick their leg straight out behind them, and aim away from their bikes

Answer 8

They get off and use a tree or a bush. I've "watered" a bush occasionally while doing a century ride. But usually it's not a problem.

Answer 9

They either stop at the side of the road, or roll the shorts down and pee away from the bike.   For obvious reasons, the cameras don't dwell on such things.

In Ironman triathlons, competitors just let fly IN their shorts because there is a time penalty for public nudity.   No its not that gross because after several hours of racing you're covered with so much sweat and gatorade a little pee makes no difference.

Answer 10

Some times they will pull over to the side. I saw it in stage 5 today alot. They also can ride slowly and pee then but they mostly pull over and catch up with the peloton later.