The Truth please(do not read if you're eating)

[crazycanuck]

Umm..i've been wondering about this for a while and am wondering if anyone can tell me the truth.

Male roadies-is it true they pee off the side of thier bike while riding long distances??? Also, what about a #2..???

Denise (RM) what about on Ironman's, what do the leaders do for loos?

I know this is not something ya wanna think about with your morning tea( looking at my watch, will be soon for many of you)

I'm just happy i'm a mtn biker and get to water the trees. alot

c

[allabouteva]

Hi CC,

Yes, this is something I've been curious about too!!!

Since reading Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the bike", I've wondered about this little passage on page 276, Lance is talking about his second TdF:

".... A day later, Jalabert pulled off to "water the flowers" while riding at the front of the peloton. There is an unwritten rule that you don't attack when a leader is relieving himself, but somebody attacked anyway, and the peloton got angry and chased him down, as if to scold him."

Obviously, riders are doing Number ones, while actually riding..... How can you lead and do it at the same time? Wouldn't it be a bit obvious? Pls don't tell me they do it in their shorts... That would be awful....

[tattiefritter]

I think its fairly usual for the domestiques to "steady" the handlebars as it were while the leader relieves himself. The peloton will definitely wait if its the leader, it goes on all the time (and not just Number ones either - sorry TMI ), in fact I think some of the TdF coverage of Lance last year was a bit too intrusive sometimes and lingered on him too long at least once during a nature call, I remember seeing complaints on some forums (I think) about this as it was quite disrespectful.

I'm actually more interested in what happens on the women's tours, do they just hold it in, all that liquid? I've never really heard anything about this but its probably not surprising as coverage of women's cycling is woeful.

[Crankin]

Well, when my son was racing he did pee in his shorts on occaison, but usually it was as described by Lance. As far as the other, it never came up. He would be so nervous that all of the other "business" was done and out before the race. Sorry if this is TMI!

Robyn

[CyclaSutra]

OK, so eat lots of fiber by lunchtime the day before a race, then stop. For dinner, eat starchy carbs with virtually no fiber (white spaghetti). For breakfast, try to drink a couple cups of coffee, and your bowels should spit out what needs to come out and leave you poo-free the rest of the day!

[Running Mommy]

Ok, yes... The riders in the tdf DO pee while on their bikes. They are pretty good at it too. It's kind of an unwritten rule that the cameras won't cover it, but they do slip. Occaisonaly you will see someone off their bike watering the bushes, or peeing off their bike but they usually try to edit it out and Ligget comes up w/ a whitty retort... Being that they are *male* they can just dig it out of their shorts and hang it off to the side...
Now for triathletes.... This is the GROSS part... I don't know what the pros do. But the age groupers that are gunning for a kona spot will basically pee their pants. They let it fly then rinse off w/ a water bottle. But triathlon is really strict in that if they catch you watering the bushes you can be dq'd. So you have to be careful. They do have porta loo's at every aid station though, so there is really no reason not to just stop and hit one. But like I said, some of those AG'ers are willing to sit in their own pee for that hallowed kona slot!
So I guess the moral of the story is, if you ever voly at an IM for either change tent or bike handler- WEAR GLOVES!!!