Updated July 6, 2026 01:51PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The 2026 Tour de France<\/a> kicked off this past Saturday, July 4, with a team time trial<\/a> through the streets of Barcelona\u2014yes, that<\/em> Barcelona. This year the Tour\u2019s first three stages were held in Spain.<\/p>\n And as anyone who took a college term abroad in Europe will tell you, July is unbelievably sweaty along Spain\u2019s Mediterranean coast. Temperatures in Barcelona topped 90 degrees for the Tour\u2019s opener, and the soaring heat produced one of the more hilarious moments in recent Tour memory.<\/p>\n Yes, it involves the above image. I want you to take a break from reading and stare deeply at the screengrab. Once your brain asks What the hell am I looking at<\/em>? you can return.<\/p>\n OK, these are riders on the British team Netcompany-Ineos, resplendently clad in their aerodynamic helmets and bodysuits, preparing for the scorching time trial by soaking their forearms in chilly water as a way to beat the Barcelona heat.<\/p>\n Context is everything in both cycling and comedy, so please let me explain to you all why<\/em> this photograph is just about the funniest thing ever for a seasoned Tour de France nerd like myself.<\/p>\n A decade ago, Team Netcompany-Ineos was named for its previous sponsor, British broadcaster Sky TV<\/a>. Team Sky steamrolled the Tour, winning the race\u2019s coveted yellow jersey seven times between 2012 and 2019 with four different riders: Bradley Wiggins (2012), Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, and\u00a0<\/strong>2017), Geraint Thomas (2018), and Egan Bernal (2019). It was an unprecedented era of dominance in Tour history.<\/p>\n Team Sky was managed by a cadre of British coaches. You might assume that the country\u2019s distinct cultural love of understated politeness and self-deprecation would prompt them to adopt an outward attitude of humbleness or modesty. WRONG. Team Sky\u2019s bosses were arrogant as hell.<\/p>\n In interviews, public addresses, and even Harvard Business Review stories<\/a>, Team Sky\u2019s bosses adopted an attitude of\u2014and I\u2019m paraphrasing here\u2014We\u2019re so smart, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. <\/em>I was the editor of the cycling magazine VeloNews<\/em> at the time, and I had a front-row seat for the team\u2019s cocky attitude.<\/p>\n This vibe stemmed from Team Sky\u2019s dogged pursuit of so-called \u201cmarginal gains\u201d as a way to win. Again, I\u2019m paraphrasing here, but the overall sentiment was that <\/b>amid standardizations in racing strategies, the best way to win the Tour de France was to pursue teeny tiny advantages on the margins of the sport, such as with gear, training, and even pillows.<\/p>\n Pillows? Yep. When traveling at the Tour, Team Sky brought its own mattresses, pillows, and duvet covers for its riders, arguing that the beds across France\u2019s network of hotels were le yuck,<\/em> and even an hour of extra sleep might spell the difference between victory and defeat. The squad brought its own laundry machines to the races, too, because French laundromats were supposedly contaminated with God-knows-what, and cleaner-than-normal Lycra bodysuits represented another marginal gain.<\/p>\n Team Sky pursued far too many other marginal gains to list all in one place. The team hired an army of chefs and nutritionists, who made sure that every morsel of food went toward a rider\u2019s recovery and energy stores. The squad worked with bike brands to develop more efficient chain lube, bike seats, bodysuits, and of course bicycles. Every piece of fancy new gear\u2014save for the mattresses and duvets\u2014got tested in a wind tunnel and weighed to within a millionth of a gram.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,\u201d David Brailsford, the team\u2019s primary architect, told the\u00a0BBC<\/em> in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n Each new marginal gain was the subject of an interview or think piece, and these Type-A doodads were often unveiled in dramatic ways online<\/a>. Team Sky\u2019s very public focus on marginal gains, of course, obfuscated the fact that the squad had the biggest budget in the sport, and outspent the other Tour de France teams by a wide margin.<\/p>\n So this brings us back to 2026 and Barcelona. In a public display that was very<\/em> Team Sky-coded, Netcompany-Ineos unfurled its pre-time-trial marginal gain shortly before the race started. Reporters from the website Cyclingnews were there to document the whole thing<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cA five-man team arrived at the warm-up area behind the start ramp with a trolley full of gear. A crowd assembled, watching on with confusion, as the crew proceeded to unfurl eight folding tables, place them in front of a row of chairs, put giant plastic tubs on top of them and fill them with water measured to a specific 8.8 degrees Celsius (47.84 degrees Fahrenheit).\u201d<\/p>\n No, there was no customized pillow. No wind tunnel-tested bike lube. No battalion\u00a0of expensive chefs doling out optimized meals. Just, like, some cold water sloshing around in the type of cheap plastic storage bins that you or I might use to store obsolete phone chargers or cat food. The setup looked like a first grader\u2019s science fair exhibit. Or what you\u2019d come away with after a disappointing trip to The Container Store.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the best part. Cyclingnews reporters asked the team representatives what the heck was going on with the tubs full of water, only to find the staffers tight-lipped.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see,\u201d a team staffer told them.<\/p>\n Alas, how far the mighty have fallen. In Barcelona, Netcompany-Ineos lost the individual time trial, finishing eight seconds behind winners Visma\u2014Lease-a-Bike.<\/p>\n