You might have noticed, maybe only in close-up shots or podium presentations, that some riders at the Tour de France are wearing small strips of tape on the arch of their noses.Certain names in particular might spring to mind: Lidl-Treks Mattias Skjelmose, for example, Netcompany-Ineoss Kvin Vauquelin, or Visma-Lease a Bike duo Victor Campenaerts and Jonas Vingegaard, whose bright pink bands are among the most visible in the bunch. But what are those little strips of material? What do they do? And, if riders at the Tour de France are relying on them, do they really give a marginal gain in performance? Nasal strips are no new phenomenon in cycling. Used previously in the 1990s, theyve seen a resurgence in recent years, thanks to the commercialisation of a number of brands, selling them at 1 a pop. The claim behind them is that they facilitate breathing by opening up the airways and increasing oxygen intake to the lungs. Some brands, like HiStrips, who provides nasal strips to Visma-Lease a Bike, go as far as to say their products allow up to 40% more airflow through the nose. But the science is less convinced; a study of literature on nasal dilators published in 2023 found the devices tend to have no effect on respiratory function or exercise capacity.Campenaerts said he epilated his nose at last year's Vuelta a Espaa. (Image credit: Getty Images)So why do riders wear them? Campenaerts was one of the pelotons early adopters of nasal strips hes even been known to epilate his nostrils. When you're really suffering, you normally start to hyperventilate through the mouth, he told Het Nieuwsblad at the Vuelta a Espaa last year. If, in those moments, you force yourself to breathe through the nose, you give your body a signal to relax.Similarly, Pinarello Q36.5s Fred Wright wore a nasal strip when he won the British National Road Championships at the end of June. I feel like nose strips were a thing back when I was racing as a youth, he told Cycling Weekly. It does feel like it opens your nose up, but I do think if youre really heavy breathing, your body knows how to take in as much oxygen as it can, [especially] for a trained athlete.So is there a significant gain? I dont really think so, Wright said. To be honest, I guess its more of an aesthetic thing What Ill say is that, now that Ive won a race with one, I cant not have one now, can I?If I was giving advice to an amateur or someone that was getting into cycling, I think [nasal strips] would maybe be one of the last things I would tell them to buy. There are lots of things that help you before a nasal strip its definitely one of the lowest items on the list. Wright wore a nasal strip when he won the British Road Championships in June. (Image credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix)Its telling that riders who wear nasal strips are a minority at the Tour de France. Within WorldTour team EF Education-EasyPost, the doctors see such little gain from the products, they dont ask their riders to wear them in races. At high intensity, when youre mouth breathing, [a nasal strip] is not going to make a difference, EF head doctor Jon Greenwell told Cycling Weekly. When youre riding at high intensity, theres almost zero airflow going through your nose; more than 90% is going through your mouth, and only 10% is going through your nose.Generally, the science says that oxygen transfer from air into your lungs isnt the limiting factor; its actually the oxygen going from your lungs into your bloodstream, and then going around your body. Generally, you never struggle for oxygen because you cant get enough air into your lungs. EF do, however, ask their riders to wear nasal strips when theyre sleeping. Ideally, at night time, you want to be breathing through your nose. You dont want to be breathing through your mouth, says Greenwell. The reason for this is that nasal breathing increases blood oxygen absorption, and cleans the air of pollen and dust. Meanwhile, mouth breathing can dry out saliva, which is important for protecting against infection. The only question that remains, then, is: should you, like Campenaerts, Vingegaard or Vauquelin, wear a nasal strip when you ride a bike? Well, probably not, especially if youre hoping for significant performance gains. It might be a good idea to wear one to bed, though.

Vive la France! Your favourite cycling live blog is coming at you from the Pyrenees today, as a bleary-eyed Ryan Mallon, fresh from a day on the Tourmalet and night watching France beat Morocco, brings you all the Friday news and views

Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France delivered one of the most striking performances in recent years. Tadej Pogacar attacked with more than 40 kilometers to go on the Tourmalet, blew apart all his rivals, and crossed the line alone to reclaim the yellow jersey with a display that drew unanimous admira...

With deep enough pockets, you could buy nearly every bike being raced at the 2026 Tour de France, but what road bikes do the best cycling teams in the world actually use? In this article, I'll run through some of the best road bikes in the world and nominate five road bikes that deserve to be raced in the Tour de France.There arent many sports where you can purchase exactly the same equipment as your idols, so cycling is different in this respect. Take the Colnago Y1Rs, for example. Its the bike on which Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has been making history, and for a pretty penny (11,999) you could ride it tooTadej usually races a lightweight, unpainted version of the radical aero bike, complete with Enve SES Pro wheels with silver hubs and spokes. Tadej Pogaar rides a lightweight unpainted Y1Rs (Image credit: Getty Images)But would you choose it over Jonas Vingegaard's Cervlo S5?The Cervlo S5 (Visma-Lease a Bike) is widely regarded as one of the best aero bikes in the world. This latest version, which was released in July last year, is supposed to be much lighter and comfier than its predecessor. Like the Y1RS, it has a bayonet-style fork which decouples the steerer from the head tube, meaning this can be made effectively deeper and thinner to improve aerodynamics. The S5's V-shaped integrated bar-stem is also similar to the Colnago's while its Reserve wheels are deeper at the rear than front. Vingegaard rides a Cervelo S5 (Image credit: Getty Images)The two favourites do use different groupsets. Pogaar's Team UAE Emirates-XRG is sponsored by Shimano, so the defending champion runs a 2x Dura-Ace Di2 setup. Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike is sponsored by SRAM, which supports both double and single chainrings on the road. On certain road stages, he'll go 1x and in the mountains he's likely to pair a 1x SRAM Red Aero chainring with a Red XPLR AXS gravel cassette and derailleur. As for the most popular bike in the pro peloton, its a three-way tie. The Pinarello Dogma F is raced by Q36.5 and Netcompany-Ineos, the Canyon Aeroad CFR is used by Movistar and Alpecin Premier-Tech, and the brand new Specialized Tarmac SL9 is ridden by Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe and Soudal-Quickstep. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) rides the Pinarello Dogma FGetty ImagesMovistar and Alpecin Premier-Tech ride Canyon's Aeroad CFR Getty ImagesThe all-round Dogma F is unchanged since 2024 but Canyon gave the Aeroad CFR a new handlebar, the flared and long CP0053, earlier this year. Specialized says the Tarmac SL9 is marginally more aerodynamic than the SL8 thanks to a thinner and better integrated head tube and a slimmer seat tube which curves around the rear wheel. Of course, Remco Evenepoel once again gets a rather special paintjob to commemorate him being the reigning Olympic Champion.Remco Evenepoel and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team ride the new Specialized Tarmac SL9 (Image credit: Getty Images)Remco and Lipowitz arent the only ones with new bikes. Team Total Energies has a prototype Litening Aero C:68X from German brand Cube. The key differences to the current model are its more carved out head tube, sawn-off seat cluster and very deep-topped integrated cockpit. The French team may roll out the lighter Litening Air C:68X climbing bike for mountainous days.Team TotalEnergies have a brand new Cube (Image credit: Getty Images)Bahrain Victorious lines up with a brand new Bianchi called the Specialissima RC. As has become increasingly common, its an all-rounder that combines aero performance with low weight. The Italian brand claims the frame weighs just 750g and that the bike is 16 watts more aerodynamically efficient than before at 50km/h. It was released a few weeks ago, so we havent managed to swing a leg over one yet. But Bianchi promises good compliance from its exclusive use of Countervail carbon fibre. It will be interesting to see whether Bahrain race the Specialissima instead of the Bianchi's Oltre RC aero bike. Bahrain Victorious have a choice between the newly updated Specialissima and Bianchi's Oltre RC aero bike, the bikes on this team car are the Oltre models (Image credit: Getty Images)Orbea, ridden by Lotto-Intermarch, was another brand to officially launch a bike on the eve of the race: an updated Orca Aero. Among the usual 'stiffer, lighter, faster' marketing material, the Basque brand said a lower bottom bracket confers a big aero advantage over the old bike by lowering the rider's position. Lotto-Intermarch have a new Orbea Orca Aero to showcase (Image credit: Getty Images)Unsurprisingly, all 23 teams are using carbon fibre bikes. Oliver Naesen was the last Tour de France cyclist to race a metal bike, a steel Eddy Merckx Corsa, on the final stage of the 2019 Tour into Paris. The last Tour de France-winning metal bike was the Pinarello Dogma FP belonging to Oscar Pereiro. The Spaniard was awarded the 2006 title after Floyd Landis' disqualification. Made mainly from magnesium alloy, the Dogma FP had carbon seatstays and a carbon fork. The last steel bike to win the maillot jaune was Miguel Indurain's 1995 Pinarello. Let me know if you prefer that era of bike or the current crop of race machines in the comments below.One of the best-looking Tour de France bikes is the bright red Wilier Filante SLR ID2 ridden by Groupama-FDJ. The Italian brand says the lightweight aero bike uses a deeper fork, aero bottles and a narrower, flared handlebar to be significantly faster than the model Mark Cavendish rode to set his Tour de France stage-win record. Wilier really seems to be delivering some excellent performing bikes at the moment so this one is well up our list of bikes to review in 2026.Groupama-FDJ's Wilier Filante SLR ID2 certainly turns heads (Image credit: Getty Images)You can't yet buy all the 2026 Tour de France bikes because some are prototypes. These include an unnamed Van Rysel for young French GC hopeful Paul Seixas. The blacked-out bike seems to marry aspects of the French brand's existing road race bikes, the aero RCR-F and the lighter RCR Pro, into an all-rounder platform. Watch our video for more info. Paul Seixas rides a prototype Van Rysel (Image credit: Getty Images)Uno-X Mobility also has an unreleased Ridley climbing bike we spotted at the Tour Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes. We imagine the Norwegian team will choose what could be a new Falcon RS in the Alps and Pyrnes over the heavy Noah Fast 3.0 aero bike. Uno-X Mobility can choose between the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 aero bike and what we believe is a new Falcon RS, here we've got the Noah Fast ready to roll (Image credit: Getty Images)Have I missed any? Oh, yes quite a few. Cofidis has a new Look Blade 795 RS 3, which is said to come with 350 fit options. EF Education-Easypost will race the more aggressive fifth-generation Cannondale SuperSix Evo, another all-rounder which killed off the American brand's full-fat aero bike, the SystemSix. Team Jayco-AlUla is set to exclusively race the new Giant Propel Advanced SL. Claimed to be 355g lighter and 18.4 watts faster than before, mainly thanks to fancy new Cadex components, the fourth generation Propel is an aero bike that can meet the 6.8kg UCI weight limit, leaving no room for Giant's TCR climbing bike.Cofidis has a new Look Blade 795 RS 3Getty ImagesTeam EF Education-Easypost are on the Cannondale SuperSix EvoGetty ImagesJayco-AlUla use Giant's new Propel Advanced SLAaron BorrillJust popping back to that Look bike quickly, Cofidis is the only team at the 2026 Tour de France using a Campagnolo groupset. Everyone else is using either Shimano or SRAM. Ten teams are on SRAM Red and 12 are on Shimano. SRAM is definitely on the rise in pro cycling, having increased from two WorldTour teams five years agoMads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan will be looking to add to their haul of Tour de France stage wins for Lidl-Trek on the eighth-generation Trek Madone SLR. Featuring a hole in the seat tube for comfort, the latest Madone SLR amalgamated the Madone aero bike and monda climbing bike into one model in 2024. Juan Ayus aboard Lidl-Trek's Madone SLR, with a fetching Tour de France paintjob (Image credit: Getty Images)NSN Cycling Team, Biniam Girmay's outfit, has the oldest bike in the peloton with the Scott Foil RC, an aero bike which hasn't been updated since 2022. Scott's newer road race bike, the Addict RC Ultimate, is too light to be raced in the WorldTour. NSN Cycling Team's Biniam Girmay rides the Scott Foil (Image credit: Getty Images)Picnic PostNL race the Lapierre Xelius DRS while Tudor Pro Cycling is a Swiss team using Swiss bikes, the BMC Teammachine R. Team Picnic Post NL ride the Lapierre Xelius DRS Getty Images Tudor Pro Cycling ride the BMC Teammachine RGetty ImagesCaja Rural is a Spanish team with a wildcard entry using bikes from Spanish brand MMR. This is the MMR Aelion all-rounder bike which we really dont see a lot of in the UK or US. XDS Astana Team ride the X-Lab AD9 (Image credit: Getty Images)But a brand that is currently taking the world by storm is X-LAB, having partnered with hundreds of dealers in North America. XDS-Astana race the Chinese brands flagship race bike, the AD9.

Red Bull - BORA Hansgrohe's tensions after stage 6 of the Tour de France was one of the most talked about topics, following Remco Evenepoel's extraordinary criticism of Florian Lipowitz - with the Belgian's explosive interview inferring all was not well at the team. Evenepoel and Lipowitz came into...

Tadej Pogacar's dominant victory on stage 6 of the Tour de France emphatically put the general classification hierarchy in place, but amid all the media interviews as riders reacted to his solo Col du Tourmalet attack, there's one you might have missed. As Pogacar warmed down on his stationary bike,...

As the Tour de France ramped up a gear on Thursday's 6th stage, Tadej Pogacar attacked on the Col du Tourmalet and sailed to the yellow jersey. Tom Pidcock, on the other hand, didn't see the world champion's attack after already being dropped on the lower slopes of the climb. The Pinarello Q36.5 lea...

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