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The first rest day of the 2022 is upon us. We did have a day off between stage four in Denmark, but that was more of a travel day than a chance to rest.
After an opening week containing cobbles, punchy finishing climbs and La Super Planche des Belles Filles, the peloton will have 24 hours to catch its breath before a few tough days in the Alps.
The order of the day will be lacking in both physical and mental exertion. An easy ride to keep the legs ticking over and a massage. But what else do the riders get up to? Do they allow themselves to have fun? If so, what do they do?
Lotto Soudal鈥檚 Florian Vermeersch confirmed as much: 鈥淕oing to have a good sleep first,鈥 he told CyclingTips. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a boring day but I kind of enjoy these days. I鈥檒l watch some Netflix, have a good massage. I was watching Peaky Blinders but I finished it so I鈥檒l have to find a new one, maybe some documentaries.鈥
Chris Hamilton of Team DSM has also recently finished Peaky Blinders and so is on to Seinfeld. With 180 episodes across nine seasons, he admits he may need a few more grand tours to race before he鈥檚 finished with it.
Netflix isn鈥檛 for everyone, though, BikeExchange-Jayco鈥檚 Chris Juul-Jensen says he doesn鈥檛 have an account. Instead, 鈥淚 may read a few pages of a book鈥. How wholesome.
鈥淚鈥檒l catch up on Love Island鈥it embarrassed to say that,鈥 Fred Wright adds, preferring the British reality show that sees young men and women locked in a house for two and a half months, during which they hopefully find the love of their life amongst the two dozen other contestants. 鈥淚鈥檝e been hooked on it for the past few days so have the last episode to watch. Davide is my favourite.鈥
Luckily, the Bahrain-Victorious rider will be balancing that out with something that will keep his brain active, some media duties. 鈥淚鈥檝e got to write a diary entry for Cycling Weekly, so better get on that. Not much else really. It鈥檚 nice to just do nothing.鈥
Family members often visit their loved ones during bike races, and the July location of the Tour de France offers a great chance to tack on a summer holiday.
鈥淢y girlfriend is coming to watch the finish today so I鈥檓 looking forward to spending some time with her tomorrow,鈥 Connor Swift says. 鈥淏ut I reckon I鈥檒l drag her to the barbers with me.鈥
Does he not get a pre-Tour haircut from his other half like Geraint Thomas or Tom Pidcock?
鈥淣ah I wouldn鈥檛 trust Sian with chopping my hair. In fact she did it in COVID and I ended up with a number 1 all over.鈥
For Chris Hamilton, it鈥檚 a bit harder to get his family over from Australia, so some video calls will be in order.
鈥淭hen I鈥檒l try and stare at the back of my eyelids for a bit in the afternoon,鈥 Hamilton adds, the one common denominator of every Tour de France rider who has completed 1,500km so far. Sleep. And lots of it.