Here we are again: at the end of another Tour de France with a list of articles that for whatever reason didn't come to pass.
This could have been due to their impossibility to pull off, or that a great idea discussed over drinks in the evening seemed too mad in the cold light of day. Some ideas are better off remaining just an idea than an actual article, for everyone's sake, and some don't have enough meat on the bone to justify a full piece.
Which leads us here. This article series has become something of a post-race tradition over the years: the 2025 Tour, 2024 Tour, even the Classics.
Some ideas are new, some persist but remain unwritten, while others we came a step closer but ultimately fell short. These are the stories we didn't get around to writing at the Tour de France 2026.
Le Vache Qui Rit vs Tour de France teams 🐮🧀
The recent introduction to the Tour de France caravan of The Laughing Cow cheese company (or Le Vache Qui Rit en Français) was a breath of fresh air, and its merch absolutely popped – so much so that we've since seen other brands up their game.
After a couple of years spent pining after a Laughing Cow bucket hat, I was the lucky recipient of one when I stumbled across a man pulling a trailer up towards the Orcières-Merlette finish line filled with so many bucket hats that he couldn't really say no.
One morning not long after, a member of a team ran up to me to let me know they had a brewing scandal that needed our attention. The accusation is thus: teams in the race were finding it impossible to get their hands on laughing cow merch.
Did we do a good job with this story?
