Some stories at the Tour de France take a while to emerge. They can sneak under the radar and only surface when you accidentally stumble upon an interesting nugget or ask that awkward question. Some of them are so smothered in antiseptic 'shammy' cream that it's simply a case of waiting until it's no longer a sore topic of discussion, until the Tour de France is almost over and journalists are dredging through their notebooks for any final stories to help pass the time before Tadej Pogačar's inevitable coronation.
At this juncture I will give you fair warning. This story is about the perineum of the Tour de France peloton. In plain English, the gooch, or for the Americans taints. Last year we got to the bottom of why riders weren't getting fined for nature breaks in view of the public as much as they used to, and this year we've skooched over a few centimetres to uncover this latest below-waist debacle at the Tour de France.
Did we do a good job with this story?
