"It’s better than peeing in front of people": Jonas Vingegaard sees some elegancy in Victor Campenaerts' "pee bottles"

While the weather on the west coast of Italy has been quite welcoming to the Giro d'Italia participants these last few days, a storm has passed through the peloton. And rather than a weather condition, it refers to a controversy sparked by a single UCI jury report after stage 9. The UCI has seen enough of so-called "pee bidons" and opted to take steps in order to stop this practice for which Victor Campenaerts has been named inventor by several of his peloton colleagues.

"We ride the bikes through the whole country," Campenaerts explained in his vlog, reacting to the discussion. "And I think by law in most countries it is forbidden to urinate in public. Next to that, there are a lot of crowds at the side of the road, so my solution was to pee in the bottle, to not pee in somebody’s front yard or not pee on people next to the road."

According to Campenaerts, the intention was never to cause offence as these "biological weapons" would be handed back to the team cars rather than thrown to spectators. "Only good intentions," he added. "Unfortunately, we don’t have a pee zone or toilets at the side of the roads like you see in triathlon."

Regarding the rumours that Campenaerts is the author of this technique, the Belgian did not seem to have much of a problem admitting that those are not unbased: "The accusation of me being the inventor might be right," he said. "But it is forbidden now, so you will never see me doing that again. Won’t happen again."

Campenaerts then took the matter to two of his Visma | Lease a Bike teammates. Jonas Vingegaard was asked for a straight answer: bottles, yes or no?

"Well, for me personally, I don’t do it," Vingegaard replied, noting that this might not be the worst way of disposing of one's "waste".

"It’s better than peeing in front of people, I would say," he added. "Because they cannot see your... thing."

Sepp Kuss approached the topic with more a playful story: "I once witnessed someone peeing into a water bottle in the middle of a Tour de France queen stage," he said.

According to the American, the spectators might have however been rather impressed than shocked. "I don’t think so," he said. "If anybody saw what was happening, I think they would have been in awe at the skill, cleanliness, hygiene."