“The accusation I’m the inventor might be right, but it won’t happen again”: Campenaerts confesses over ‘pee-gate’; Segaert wins Giro stage with late flyer; Tour de France cauliflower driver wanted + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Pee-gate redux and a Campenaerts confession!
Fans of Monday’s live blog might remember Ryan’s deep dive on human waste in the peloton. And I’m not talking about [insert rider you dislike here], but the Giro d’Italia organisers instructing riders not to discard bottles they have urinated into on the side of the road…
Well, I’m delighted to announce that the story has progressed! XDS-Astana’s Arjen Livyns was first to come forward, outing his former Lotto teammate Victor Campenaerts as a bottle wee-er (that’s the technical term).
Then Decathlon CMA-CGM’s Oliver Naesen came forward. You know it’s a good quote when it begins “I’m not naming names but…”
Pee-gate in #GirodItalia continues:
– Naesen: “I won’t name names, but V.C. is the expert in that field. Although I think Peter Sagan used to do it as well”
– Campenaerts: “Pee bidons in the race? I have no idea what you’re talking about”https://t.co/lcXZ1soNf2 https://t.co/K5r7hIqffp
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) May 21, 2026
Ignoring the Peter Sagan allegations for a moment (that I’m afraid we can totally believe), it seemed very on brand for Victor Campenaerts to offer a complete denial of not only bottle-weeing himself, but to the entire concept, despite facing multiple character references from teammates past and present.
But then, for want of a better phrase, Victor Campenaerts came clean, in a vlog posted during today’s Giro stage:
View this post on Instagram
We initially enjoy the fun faces of Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss saying they’ve never done such a thing, but that they know a rider who has done such a thing on a queen stage of the Tour de France. Then, comes the confession:
“By very popular demand, I’ll give an explanation about the pee bottle,” the Belgian begins.
“So we ride the bikes through the whole country. And I think by law in most countries it is forbidden to urinate in public, and there’s a lot of crowds on the side of the road.”
“So my solution was: I will pee in the bottle to not pee in someone’s front yard, or not pee on people that are next to the road. Then I give the bottles to the car.
“Unfortunately we don’t have a pee zone or toilets on the side of the road like in triathlon so we are forced in long events (5,6,7 hours) to find some place to pee. Sometimes it’s challenging. But it’s now ‘forbidden’ by the UCI so you will never see me doing that again.
“The accusation that I’m the inventor might be right, but it’s forbidden now so, it won’t happen again.”
Finally a resolution! You can always (sometimes) trust the gossip of the peloton. Maybe more races should follow the lead of the World Championships in Rwanda and install portaloos on the course.
#Kigali2025 – Toilet time for Masnada and Evenepoel on this lap pic.twitter.com/Lab1R0f3Qv
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) September 28, 2025
Probably don’t need a camera on them though…
SRAM hits out at “deeply flawed” gear ratio trial and calls for “reform now”
Ryan’s been on top of this story all day, and managed to write about Oxfordshire country lanes. He’s pretty good…
Sometimes the internet is nice...
For all the ills of the world, people (by and large) are good. It’s rather lovely then to bring a nice bit of the internet to the live blog today.
On todays episode of ‘it shouldn’t look like that’
by
u/mihellino in
BikeMechanics
Today’s bit of good internet comes from the r/BikeMechanics thread, where reddit user mihellino takes up the story:
“Thought i’d share for a chuckle what happens when things get run till max. Bike that was brought into the workshop today. Lady (bless her heart) said the front derailleur is “making weird noise”… Needless to say the whole drivetrain was toast.
“She barely had the money for a new chain. Still found some okay used jockey wheels and a casette somewhere and replaced them free of charge. The crank chainrings too.
Hopefully bought me some good karma by doing so. She was thrilled, so that alone made it worth[while].”
I’m inclined to agree, and always happy to issue a public service announcement about the importance of changing gear when the going gets tough, if you want to climb any mountain!
Billy Ocean references aside, the comments are all pretty chipper as well, here are some highlights:
“It always comes back, good play my good man!!”
“This is an amazing post! Made my day!”
“You are a good person and did just what I’d have done. Bravo.”
“Thanks for helping her out. If she rode it enough to wear it completely out, odds are that she really needs that bike for her everyday living.”
“I love jobs like that, where you can brighten someone’s day. I’ve always been more of a ‘recycler’ mechanic (pardon the pune) than a parts fitter. Probably why my shed is full of secondhand but useable parts for all sorts of two wheeled contraptions.”
My personal favourite though is from aj_lo, who kept their remarks short but sweet…
“That drivetrain is longing for a bristle brush…”
Giro: Segaert wins!
Wow, what a ride by Alec Segaert! The Belgian has had a great spring and has capped it off with his first Grand Tour stage win.
Fabio van den Bossche and Lorenzo Milesi both launched their own flyers but were caught by the peloton. Segaert even had the gap to turn and start celebrating with 100m to go! What a race this has been for Bahrain-Victorious, an unexpected race leader and now a stage win!
Toon Aerts was an unexpected second for Lotto, ahead of stage 2 winner Thomas Silva.
Giro: Ciccone launches, Turner drops, Segaert launches!
Hello?! Giulio Ciccone has launched an attack wit 7km remaining, and Igor Arrieta, winner of the rain-soaked stage 6 has joined him. The EF duo of Markel Beloki and Michael Valgren worked well though to bring them back. But things are volatile here. The peloton pass 5km, the safety point where all riders will subsequently get the same time if there’s a crash. Meanwhile Ben Turner has dropped away, too many matches used chasing back on I fear…
Alec Segaert is next to launch a flyer and has a gap! 3km to go…
Giro: Final 10km
Right, the riders are motoring towards the finish so let’s quickly recap the fast men still in the front group.
Ethan Vernon is there, and will be led out by Corbin Strong. Finally Ben Turner has latched on to the back of the front group. teammate Embret Svestad-Bårdseng will now be tasked with moving him up through the peloton.
Orluis Aular, for whom Movistar did all the hard work on the day’s earlier climbs is there, as is Madis Mihkels, for whom EF worked on the descent.
One final mention to yesterday’s stage winner Jhonatan Narváez. He may be tired, but if he finishes in the top-3 of today’s stage he will overtake Magnier in the points jersey standings.
Giro: Sprint favourites throw in towel, Eulalio takes bonus seconds
Milan and Magnier have just been seen deep in conversation. Team Picnic PostNL Raisin are still working but the gap has ballooned back out over 1’30”. The game is up.
Meanwhile, Ben Turner is in one hell of a fight to get back in the group after his puncture. He’s got Jack Haig for company and is still making his way through the cars with 14km to go.
Meanwhile the peloton pass the Red Bull KM, and race leader Afonso Eulalio pops out to take 6 bonus seconds, Ben O’Connor taking 4 behind him. That establishes a 33-second advantage for the Portuguese rider in GC.
Giro: Vernon is there!
The young British sprinter is in the main peloton, and so is Ben Turner (must’ve misidentified him earlier). Without so many key sprinters, this is tough to predict.
The advantage over Milan and Magnier has dropped slightly to under 1’10” but the energy in the chase has ebbed. Is this the best chance we have for a British stage winner in this race? Saying that Turner has just punctured but the Netcompany-Ineos team car is right there so he should be able to rejoin the front.
22km remaining…
Wiebes unstoppable in Burgos
There is other racing happening on the continent this afternoon, with the women’s Vuelta a Burgos starting today. No one though was even within touching distance of Lorena Wiebes…
View this post on Instagram
Giro: Motoring along
It’s not looking good for Milan and Magnier, the gap is up to 1’25” and EF have started riding on the descent. They’ll be working for the Estonian sprinter Madis Mihkels who’s lurking at the back of the peloton. NSN are also working, I’m not sure if Ethan Vernon has re-joined or if it’s all for their versatile Kiwi Corbin Strong – stage winner at Glenshee Ski Centre in the Tour of Britain a few years ago. The more you know…
40km to go.
Giro: Milan dropped!
Oof, he tried but Jonathan Milan dropped away 1km from the summit. Over the top, he’s 45 seconds from the front of the race, with Magnier a further 20 seconds behind. The Frenchman now has Casper Van Uden for company though, and the Picnic-PostNL Raisin domestiques. Ben Turner’s there as well
I’d expect those sprinters to regroup and cooperate to rejoin the peloton, but who will drive on the pace now in the peloton?
Giro: Here they go again...
Onto the second climb, and still Movistar are racing furiously. Milan and Magnier have made it back into the peloton and their teammates have repositioned them further up in the peloton to give them some sliding room. They’ve got 5k to survive…
BANG! Magnier can’t do it, he’s going backwards and with only one teammate for company I doubt he’ll be coming back. Jonathan Milan is hanging on and still has 2km left to grit his teeth through. This is tough going for the big Italian though, and he’s only 3 or 4 riders from the back.
Giro: break caught, Milan and Magnier dropped!
Over the top of the climb they come, and the breakaway are swamped, you would never have imagined a break to lose a 2-minute margin on a category-e climb, but Movistar are motoring! An honourable mention to Jardi Van der Lee who pushed on just in time to take the mountain points.
Einer Rubio has started working on the front, and he’s dropped Pascal Ackermann at the back.
Whoa, now Milan and Magnier are also dropped but only 10-15 seconds off the back over the top, they’ll hope to rejoin but there’s one more climb still to come. Ethan Vernon is also in that group…
Giro: Movistar rip it up...
In hindsight, after what they did a few days ago, we should have seen this coming.
Movistar have come to the front, working for their Venezuelan fast man Orluis Aular. The time gap has been rapidly slashed from two minutes to thirty seconds! Lorenzo Milesi and Enric Mas, second yesterday, are rotating on the front.
Sprinters are starting to pay. Groenewegen has been dropped and has four teammates for company. Also dropped are Jensen Plowright, Tobias Lund and Luca Mozzato. And there’s still 3.5km of the first climb to go!
Drivers slam “special treatment” for cyclists
Whoop-de-doo…
Giro: New break stabilised
And just like that the sextet have a proper advantage, growing out towards two minutes.
This break are fresher and will be harder to catch than the original five. Suddenly the upcoming climbs become very important. Do the sprinters’ teams ride hard to bring the break back and risk putting their fast men into the red? Do the break prioritise strength in numbers and ride slower to stay together on the flat run-in, or do some try to push on to keep an advantage on the peloton? The first climb, the Colle Giovo, starts shortly…
Giro: Attacks!
Pfft, just as I leave my laptop screen to eat some crumpets, attacks start!
With 106km to go, and the break’s lead down to 40 seconds several teams launched moves on a small incline along the Adriatic. The break were caught but three of the original five (Geens, Tarozzi and Van der Lee) have joined a new group of escapees. So, the break now also comprises Johan Jacobs, Jonas Rutsch and Fredrik Dversnes.
There’s 90km remaining, we’re still 15 odd-kilometres from the first categorised climb, and Polti are trying to launch riders from the peloton to bridge the 40-second gap.
Exciting times!
Giro: 5-rider breakaway escapes
Juan Pedro Lopez, a small climber and former maglia rosa wearer now riding for Movistar, is not the sort of rider you’d expect to see in a breakaway on a sprinter’s stage, which maybe speaks to his hopes that the odds can be beaten. EF’s Jardi Van der Lee presumably feels the same having been one of the last break survivors from last week’s Blockhaus stage.
But they probably wanted better support up the road than the Italian second-division pair of Bardiani’s Manuele Tarozzi and Polti’s Mattia Bais. Jonas Geens of Alpecin-Premier Tech – who are without a sprinter after the abandon of Kaden Groves – completes the quintet, who have an advantage over the peloton just under 90 seconds. Soudal Quick-Step and Unibet Rose Rockets, working for Magnier and Groenewegen respectively, are sharing the workload behind. Everything seems under control…
Roglič to retire?
It’s news the world (me) doesn’t want to hear. The esteemed Daniel Benson has been reading transfer runes, and reports that Primož Roglič is likely to retire at the end of the season.
The 36-year-old is scheduled to ride the Tour de Suisse and the Vuelta a España this year and is reportedly eying the European Championships – a hilly course in his native Slovenia – as a possible homecoming/farewell.
In other transfer news, another former Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart is set to leave Lidl-Trek. And after three injury and illness-affected seasons with the team, it’s difficult to know where the Londoner will go next. Fingers crossed it all works out for him though.
In better British transfer news, young talent Bob Donaldson has signed a contract extension with Jayco-AlUla.
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Cycle infrastructure so tragic it's almost funny
SRAM wins landmark appeal over controversial gearing trial as court rules UCI failed to show how new rules would improve safety
A farcical situation, but by some distance the most frustrating part is the €300,000 from the SafeR organisation that was supposed to be ring-fenced by the UCI to devise new safety solutions. That money has been spent on this lost court battle…
Cauliflower driver wanted!
Your favourite bike race needs YOU! (Pointy finger emoji)
If you like vegetables, and can tolerate driving on French roads then you can drive a cauliflower!
This year, E.Leclerc are looking for a driver of a brand new electric cauliflower car, a vehicle so new the company are using AI-generated images to show what the vehicle could look like (boo!)
We won’t show you that, so instead you can savour last year’s offering of strawberries cherries, melon and… *squints* bearded leek? 
E. Leclerc publicity caravan Tour de France (Image Credit: Callum Devereux)
TF1 report the car will not be easy to drive and the ideally young applicant should have had their driving license for at least three years.
And if this is all a bit too mad for your liking, just remember they’ll be coming to Britain next year…
Daily dose of motonormativity...
The private car is an inefficient mode of transport in urban areas. Behold the hospital car park outside our office
— Prof. Ian Walker (@ianwalker.bsky.social) 20 May 2026 at 10:43
Giro preview: surely a sprint?
So far at the Giro d’Italia, opportunities have been few and far between for the sprinters. Paul Magnier thoroughly enjoyed his time in Bulgaria, nabbing two victories ahead of Jonathan Milan. Then the Naples stage is probably best to forget if you’re the Giro organisers. If you’re anyone except Davide Ballerini for that matter.
After many days of GC tussling and days for the breakaway though, this is surely a day for the fast men. The only thing I can see upending that result is if a strong break gets away on the uncategorised climb at the start of the day. But even if race leader Afonso Eulalio and Jonas Vingegaard are content to let a break away, you’d have thought the sprinters teams would be motivated to keep any escapees on a tight leash.
Whether the two third-category climbs that top out with 68 and 52 kilometres to go are hard enough to separate the wheat from the chaff remains to be seen, but it’ll be tough to see the sprinters let another opportunity pass them by…
One final bit of info to bring you, with his third stage win, Jhonatan Narváez has moved to within 20 points of maglia ciclamino wearer Magnier. If Magnier doesn’t get a result today then he might be in for a fight to keep the jersey for the rest of the race.
Fuel duty freeze criticised by Cycling UK for “kicking the problem down the road”, as research shows soaring prices encourage more drivers to cycle
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@Smoggysteve "Most would happily ride on the roads and be treated with respect by drivers". But people aren't - and as far as I can see they won't be. Not until there is a lot less driving and it's slower around cyclists, and far more people driving have "skin in the game" eg. they sometimes cycle and their friends and family do also. That's what leads to the model - which is perhaps most advanced in NL - where cycling, walking and driving are all seen as separate normal transport modes. Their needs, vulnerabilities and any dangers to others are considered. And *that* leads to "mix / share when possible, separate when necessary". But "possible" is "where your 10-year old would be safe to cycle unsupervised" - so very few motor vehicles, going slow! And AFAICS everybody - even "existing cyclists" - is happy with the result. (I dunno about a few pro cyclists - but don't they tend to have training camps in different counties anyway?)
@quiff as an Edinburgh resident I can confidently say he's speaking without moving his lips in one sense: - while as I noted in a separate comment there *is* now some real separated cycle infra, all the examples i can think of have *at least as much space* for pedestrians. The rest of the "cycle infra" is essentially similar to the situation in the rest of the UK: eg. bus lanes*, cycle lanes and shared use paths (eg. "build" infra by sticking up a sign). Edinburgh is one of the places with a moderately extensive network of former railways which have been converted to "shared use" paths (completely motor traffic few). However though shared they are not narrow by UK standards. And this is all effectively a "free extra" for all non- motorised users, not like the "sign a cycle path" where pedestrians do lose space. I think this all comes from the "popular understanding" of cycling in which ultimately cyclists are the "other". They don't fit "motor vehicle" or "pedestrian" (including wheelchairs on the very rare occasions people think about that). Thus "cyclists are cheating" in multiple ways! They shouldn't get their own space as "there aren't enough" of them. And "they can just use the road / path". But being able to *choose* "on the road" or "on the footway" (shared use path) is clearly unfair - nobody else gets to do that! BUT of course even if they did pick just one of road OR pedestrian space it's still not fair anyway because they're "too slow" for the road (don't pay "road tax" etc...) and "far too fast" for pedestrians... * Though some existing cyclists may appreciate them when there are few buses, buses and bikes are a very poor mix for several reasons.
Whilst a shame for any employees, their bib shorts had the worst chamois pad I’d ever encountered, utter waste of my money. Even though they were Strava challenge discount purchases, still a waste of money.
Thanks, just going to have to suck it up. Got next week off and will take the easy, if expensive option...
@ktache Just go for the TNT Sports only package, £30.99 for a month. Alternatively have you considered experimenting with a VPN for a few pounds, allowing you to sign up for a free stream abroad, e.g. SBS Australia which streams the Tour live? If I didn't have a kind mate's login that's what I'd do!
So, it's now the month of July and I'm going to have to pay to watch the TdF, for one month only. On a tablet unfortunately, as I didn't manage to get a laptop to rig up to the TV, grrr. Just wondering, what package will I have to fork out for? Not wanting to pay for the wrong one...
Not that it sounds like a dealbreaker given the other faults you've identified, but that cable isn't really a "proprietary" cable, four pin magnetic cables like that are quite common on bone-conducting headphones and other devices (my inexpensive smartwatch uses one) and they can be had for £4.99 on UK Amazon.
There was never really anything to say about le col kit. Most of it was alright. Some of it was poorly designed/made. Trying to position yourself as a Rapha competitor whilst always offering 40% or more off doesn't scream premium though.
Up next in the MucOff product line; for when the cassette won't budge, (chain)whip-it!
11 thoughts on ““The accusation I’m the inventor might be right, but it won’t happen again”: Campenaerts confesses over ‘pee-gate’; Segaert wins Giro stage with late flyer; Tour de France cauliflower driver wanted + more on the live blog”
Yikes – that’s commitment above and beyond!
1) That awefull bike marking on the pavement looks like my Brompton half folded.
2) Anyone else just watching that hospital car park clip on repeat?
It is mesmerising. Like a lava lamp.
But also depressing.
Otherwise law abiding…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7qd993vxo
I like the 37mph 5th storey comparison.
Campenaerts has been shown on TV coverage a year or two ago, the tour IIRC, doing his fucking disgusting bottle-pissing thing.
Sick fuck.
Do they switch to e-bikes for that?
The interesting thing about that worn-out drive train, is that it is worn out! She is riding it regularly and obviously low(er) intensity. It is apparently her major mode of transportation. While I applaud the generous mechanic and I DO like the higher tech stuff myself, but we all NEED to support each other and the every-day rider —- even if it barely works, with out being snobbish or elitist. Just because I ride a XXX and you have a YYY makes about as much difference as I wear my hair this way and you wear your hair that way.
I can only imagine the Telegraph outrage at cauliflowers being allowed to be on British closed roads at next year’s TdF 🙂
Let’s hope the organisers ratchet up the gammons’ blood pressure by also having french beans and brussels sprouts cars!!
Your reminder of a) the dangers to yourself of driving on unfamiliar mountain roads in the dark (possibly too fast…) and
b) Some driven journeys are driven just to “have a drive” or “get out”. Why did nobody tell us that this happened and that every single driven journey wasn’t vital?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g483n8ly8o
Luckily they’re back driving again! (“It wasn’t the car that failed. It was me,” she said.) Hooray!
@chrisonabike Luckily they’re back driving again! (“It wasn’t the car that failed. It was me,” she said.) Hooray!
Seems like the sensible thing would be to repair the car and make her sit in the passenger seat!
@chrisonabike
“Natalia admitted she may have been driving too fast on the unfamiliar road, which has a 40mph speed limit.”
With this open admission, along with an investigation into what happened…
Why is there no record of prosecution, loss of licence and requirement to re-take her driving test?
And impact on her insurance renewal?
@mitsky surely “she’s suffered enough”? Plus of course there’s a “won’t you think of the (now) disabled?” mitigation lurking. I don’t know how well she was walking before but it sounds like it would be worse now.