Skoda repeats new tradition of modifying Tour de France penis drawings to promote Tour de France Femmes; Forest has cheeky dig at Londoners sweltering on the tube + more on the live blog
Their efforts were not in vein: phallic Tour de France doodles transformed into promo for the Tour de France Femmes again
Let’s kick off with a bit of toilet humour from a cheeky Czech car brand to cheer up England football fans who might be a bit down in the dumps this morning. For everyone else… well, the message is a very worthwhile one anyway.
Skoda has been busy at the Tour de France as its official auto provider – and perhaps sensing that this edition of the men’s race is a forgone conclusion*, it has now turned its attention to the upcoming Tour de France Femmes taking place between 1-9 August.
“As the world’s biggest cycling event returns, the Tour de France faces a familiar challenge: every year, hundreds of penis drawings are graffitied onto the race route”, says Skoda.
“But instead of simply painting over them, Skoda… is transforming the crude markings into artworks that promote the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, using the visibility of the men’s race to shine a spotlight on the women’s peloton.”
Sound familiar? That might be because Skoda pulled this stunt last year, but arguably the modifications this time around are even more intricate and colourful. That’s because Skoda has employed actual artists – French illustrator Celine Dormeau and London-based illustrator Erin Aniker – to come up with new designs for the cocks and balls, that the Tour de France’s ‘eraser men’ (who are deployed specifically to remove offensive graffiti from the Tour route) will reimagine with specialist stencils.
Meredith Kelly, Skoda’s CMO, added: “The Eraser Men do their best to remove as many of these [markings] as possible, but there are always more to deal with; these stencils allow us to turn something negative into something positive, to help promote the women’s race and encourage more people to watch it.”
* We’ve absolutely no evidence to back up this wild speculation
Power without the power meter?
That’s what the folks behind a new app called Ride are claiming. Our tech ed Mat has been digging into the details…
Forest takes dig at the Tube with new billboard
We’re dishing out all the free PR this morning, as we bring you news from London e-bike hire firm Forest in the form of its new billboard campaign.
Forest says the billboard – erected (let’s keep the penis theme going here) on Brick Lane – aims to take “a cheeky swipe at Underground” amid the UK’s heatwave, based on the premise that it’s easier to keep cool riding a Forest e-bike than it is squashed against someone’s huge bag on the Circle Line.
“The campaign comes as Forest continues to experience record demand, with rides up by 40% compared with the previous heatwave just a few weeks ago, as more people choose to cycle during the heat”, says Forest.
The rideshare specialist will be keen to capitalise on the success of its viral £1 rides campaign, for which they hired none other than YouTube sensation from about 14 years ago £1 Fish Man. Intrigued? We were, perhaps a little too much…
(Ad) Cycling holidays: No longer just for MAMILS?
Since we’ve been dishing out free promo for car and hire bike brands all morning, it’s only right we redress the balance with some we’ve been paid for:
> Cycling holidays used to be the domain of the MAMIL… But is that finally changing?
As we’ve already alluded to, the linked article includes paid promotion on behalf of inGamba
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/16/snake-bike-chain-northern-rivers-rail-trail-tweed-nsw-australia
I'm using Nord vpn and watching the aussie sbs service - it does have adverts but its a similar format to the old ITV offering , they even have one of their presenters riding the last 20-30km. They also give some history of the places that are being shown on the TV so all I'm missing is ned and david
Awful looking e bike, same story every single time, a bike that looks like all the others, people are only going to buy it if it looks good - why is that so hard for them to understand?
@ceebee247 Absolutely. When it took 15s+ to reach 60mph it m ight have been ok, now people expect to reach that between two corners 300m apart. And woe betide anybody who prevents that. I'm think we could have 40mph default on any road without a centre line. If it's not wide enough for two carriageways then at least the closing speed is only 60mph as I dive into a hedge for oncoming traffic that won't slow. Another upside is that it will stop mapping apps from favouring small empty roads for cut throughs. Google has taken me some ridiculous routes based on the assumption I could travel at 60mph on a road.
@mdavidford Yes- it works!
Nuance died along time ago in the media - its all about how we can make our readers angry at somebody else. That said speed restrictions for county lanes needs to be revisited. There are lanes around me that are just wide enough for 1 car and yet in theory the speed limit is 60mph. These limits were put in place when there weren't that many cars, they were smaller and many couldnt even reach that heady speed. I know the likelihood of that happening is zero because the media nor the general public are interested in saving lives if it inconviences them in the smallest degree.
Sometimes steak with oysters, caviar and champagne isn’t available, ... because we've eaten them all.
@mctrials23 Absolutely, I was just thinking of a couple of roads I regularly ride through at Elephant and Castle, where a plethora of new tower blocks has been built: the prevailing wind is south-westerly but due to the wind shear affects of the new buildings it switches to northerly for several blocks and requires very considerable extra effort on windy days, how is an app going to figure that out? How will it know if I'm riding on an open road with nobody about or drafting behind an HGV? I'll really be surprised if in real world conditions this app can consistently get within 20% of a power meter figure. It's one of those cases where if it were possible, somebody would've done it already. That said I wouldn't have minded giving it a free trial but it wants your card number, something I always avoid unless essential, it's just a trap for the forgetful and poorly organised (like me). If companies are really sure their products are so good that people will subscribe after a free trial, why do they insist on having your card number instead of just genuinely letting you try it for free?
@wtjs Of course they won't unless Marcus Wright is actively blocking them from attending a scene under blues and twos. You can't expect the police to do good solid coppering when there are thrilling chases and high-profile glory cases to be taken on
Rider: You promised that the breakfast would be toast with jam, cereal and boiled eggs, all I’ve been given is a slice of untoasted plain bread. Prudhomme: Sometimes steak with oysters, caviar and champagne isn’t available, stop complaining. Pathetic from the top man, all the riders are asking for is clean rooms with air-conditioning. The attitude that they are asking for the Earth with such minimal demands shows absolute contempt for the people whose incredible efforts pay for his enormous salary (I assume it’s enormous, given that he seems to have taken great care to make sure that the figure is not publicly available as far as I can see). The attitude towards riders doesn’t seem to have changed in some respects from the days when they used to sleep on the stone floors of churches overnight to try and keep cool.
1 thought on “Skoda repeats new tradition of modifying Tour de France penis drawings to promote Tour de France Femmes; Forest has cheeky dig at Londoners sweltering on the tube + more on the live blog”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/16/snake-bike-chain-northern-rivers-rail-trail-tweed-nsw-australia