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!!!

[velogirl]

In the women's peloton, it's not uncommon to take a "pee break." Typically this will be initiated by the race leader (in a stage race). Like the men, it's uncool to attack during the break.

It's not uncommon to see this happen relatively early in the race (pace is still slower so HRs are lower, everyone's still well hydrated or had some morning coffee, etc). In the pro races, they'll actually announce this on the tour radio (the radio that goes into all the team cars and narrates the race).

At Redlands last year, when the women took their break, the caravan did too (which was good because I'd had too much coffee and was dying). It was a little weird, because all the male team directors and mechanics just stood off to the side of the road, but the few women had to find somewhere a bit more discreet to squat.

[alpinerabbit]

OK Gross city. listen to this. This is related by a former teammate in "Tour" magazine so I believe it.

Jan Ullrich in the TdF (don't remember what year) - the day of L'Alpe d'Huez, he ate 3 plates of Muesli for breakfast instead of spaghetti. That goes through the system pretty fast.

40 km before L'Alpe he had to ... #2. 40 k before the end you can't get off anymore because you will lose touch with the peloton.

His 6 teammates pushed him, after one of them had gotten one of those caps they wear, from the team car....

You get the picture.

[Jones]

During the stage of Le Tour 2005 that Gorgeous George won, the cameras followed break away all day and caught George peeing off the bike. I had to rewind my Tivo before I figured it out and then had to call my DH into the room to watch it again.
Jones

[Dianyla]

Fat Cyclist has a great blog entry about peeing while riding.

I was just looking again and can't find this one article that I once read, written by a man. This guy basically said "unlike women who can just sit down and pee in their shorts, guys have to figure out a special technique". WTF? I guess if I were seriously in trouble I might consider this, but I can only imagine that I'd get horrific salt chafing. I've had horrific salt chafing once when I was out hiking and had run out of toilet paper so I just tried the ol' drip dry technique. Bad Idea!

ETA: Found that article: http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadin...vacuation.html

[Nanci]

Salt/urine chafing is bad. It might even be better to wipe with the back of a glove than risk dripping dry if you have several hours left to go...

BF says men have a way of hanging "it" out over the waist of the shorts to go. He also claims to have seen one female winner of the Chicago Marathon experiencing diarrhea while continuing to run. Hey, what's the prize money, $10,000? _Maybe_ that's worth it. I can't even imagine...

Nanci

[Dianyla]

Salt/urine chafing is bad. It might even be better to wipe with the back of a glove than risk dripping dry if you have several hours left to go...

I've since developed a quick "hand squeegee" technique - exactly as it sounds. Then rinse the hand off with a squirt of the water bottle.

He also claims to have seen one female winner of the Chicago Marathon experiencing diarrhea while continuing to run. Hey, what's the prize money, $10,000? _Maybe_ that's worth it. I can't even imagine...

Yep, that was Grete Waitz (though, I think it was the NYC Marathon).

ETA: More googling shows that Grete isn't alone. Apparently someone also went poopy during Chicago, and probably countless other events like this.

[Nanci]

You know what, if you weren't drinking Gatorade, if you were drinking plain water, you could do a sort of portable bidet thing! Might even feel wonderful!

Nanci