8 Weird Jobs At The Tour de France

The Tour de France is a massive travelling city, and with that comes some truly weird and wonderful jobs! In this video, we’re diving into the wackier side of the world’s biggest bike race to explore the jobs you never knew existed.
From the anti-doping agent who has to watch you pee and the official who measures your sock height with a special metal gadget, to the person who drives a custom yellow bike across Europe overnight, these are the strange but essential roles that keep the Tour on the road.

Chapters ⏱️
00:00 Intro: The Weirdest Jobs at the Tour de France
01:01 The Anti-Doping Agent (Who Watches You Pee)
02:17 The In-Race Doctor
03:22 The Emergency Bike Taxi
04:34 The Official Sock Measurer
05:21 The Time Trial Holder
06:07 The Travelling Bed Swapper
06:53 The VIP Race Convoy Driver
07:57 The Tour de France Hairdresser

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[Music] There are some weird jobs at the Tour to France and in this video I’m going to explain a few of them. From the guy who watches you pee after winning to the person who measures your sock height. The to France is beautifully bonkers at times. So let’s dive some of its wackier parts. Now recently we covered a few weird facts from the tour on this very channel. And one of them was a crew of people on the race who drive the route, painting over any fallaces and rude pictures that fans may have overenthusiastically painted on the road. That got us thinking though, because aside from this wonderfully weird job, there are plenty more that keeps this race on the road. Over 4 and a half thousand people in total work on the race in what is essentially a traveling city around France for the month of July. And our first weird job also involves some nudity. Sorry, it’s not all nudity, I promise. [Music] Right. So, there is a person at the race who watches you pee. I think most of us are familiar with the fact that pro athletes must play by the rules and of course not cheat, which is especially true when it comes to drug tests. What everyone forgets to think of, though, is the practicalities of being drug tested. Anti-doping agents will find a chaper in a rider as soon as possible after a stage or race win, filling out details and collecting a sample. Now, this can be a blood sample, but usually it’s a urine collection. Now, you don’t have the privacy of doing this on your own. Oh, no. These agents have to come in with you and physically watch your we kind of come out into the into the pot. Sounds a little extreme, but there have been numerous cases throughout history in these tests of people faking it. So, it needs to be done. And it is a job that’s needed to police such nefarious urination, even if it is a pretty weird one. I must admit, I’ve struggled with this at times. There is nothing like the awkward silence of staring into a stranger’s eyes as you try to take a whiz. I’ve got stage fright on numerous occasions, but with a bit of perseverance, you get there in the end. [Music] Next up, most major sporting events have an incredible team of talented medical staff on hand to support athletes, and the tour is no different. There is, of course, nothing strange about this, but what is strange is that the tour has doctors that travel literally in the race. So, when you’re racing, no matter the situation, you can call upon this doctor to help out. bad midra hay fever, hand up, head back to the bunch. You can essentially have a GP doctor’s appointment as you ride. Bandages come undone from a previous day’s crash. You can head back to the doctor and they’ll patch you up from the side of a moving vehicle. The full medical operation at the tour, though, is a sight to behold. 10 emergency doctors, seven ambulances, and two doctor’s cars in the race. There is also a 16-tonon truck called the Center Medical Mobile, which is an air condition unit with two electrical beds, a radiology area, defibrillators, emergency respirators, and even an ultrasound. [Music] During the race, most team staff will be present on the race and travel from start to finish with the team. A lot of team staff will swap in and out as the 3-week race progresses to make sure that everyone stays as fresh as possible to support the riders. One job though that is definitely pretty unique is that of the person who has to drive any extra equipment across Europe at a moment’s notice, often throughout the night. This is in the case of a rider suddenly leading the overall classification mid-ra or perhaps another classification like the best climber or sprinter. So, this warrants wearing a yellow polka dot or green jersey. And any bike or equipment sponsor like to use such an occasion to show off custom painted gear. The problem is that sometimes a rider who isn’t really expected to get in such a position does the unlikely and finds themsself winning the race. Often this means that team staff or sponsors work around the clock to try and source a custom painted bike, helmet, shoes, glasses, whatever you can paint yellow. They’ll paint it and then drive it across France or Europe to the rider so they can line up on the following stage wearing or using it. Essentially, they are a to France bike taxi driver. Moving on from driving through the night for the tours yellow jersey to the weird task of being on hand to measure racers sock height. Yep, you heard correctly. It’s someone’s job to make sure socks aren’t too high on any rider racing at all. Cool. This rule comes from the fact that sockite has been creeping ever higher in recent years thanks to the aerodynamic benefit of specialized fabric over skin. But the UCI cycling’s governing body has stepped in to stop things going too over the top and turning bike racing into something that it’s not. That means there is literally an umpire with a metal gadget going around measuring sock length before the race begins. Thumbs up for the weirdness. [Music] Another job needing to be performed by race officials is the task of holding up riders as they start a TT stage. There is a whole load of incredible tech involved in the running of the tour. But this job is still refreshingly old school. It’s one person’s task to literally hold the saddle of the rider as they start a time tri so they can start and race from the gun. Now, you could have a start gate or a machined holding pen that would allow riders to automatically start when the clock hits zero. But you know what? I love how this job still exists. Despite how weird it may look to an outsider, it’s a real honor to be able to set off someone and one of the greats of our sport as they potentially ride themselves into the history books. Supporting those in the race is a key to maximizing any performance gains. Indeed, the term marginal gains was born from the idea of looking at the best ways to improve this support. One area that some teams look to improve on is a rider’s night’s sleep during the race. And that makes sense. You got to be well rested to perform at your best. Some teams take this to the point of literally having a crew of staff who travel from team hotel to hotel around the race, swapping out hotel mattresses with premium uber comfortable ones, plus blackout blinds, duvys, pillows, you name it. Sounds like the dream to me, but definitely one of the strangest jobs to occupy yourself with for a month around France. Next up, the VIP driver. Most sporting events have VIP areas for certain fans. Whether you agree with this or not, it is a big part of any major sporting spectacle and business for the organizers, too. Think the Royal Box at Wimbledon or the VIP area behind the dugout in a football stadium. The tough part with where to put such an area in cycling is that the race is always moving. It’s part of its charm for me. It’s free to watch the tour roadside and spectate, making it so accessible. But there is a way to get a better view. The VIP area at the tour is actually in the race convoy. French presidents, celebrities, and a lucky few have watched the race unfold from here. Every stage, there’ll be a number of cars following the race who have official permission to drive right up behind the race at times and see the action. Usually, the drivers of these cars are exposed race convoy drivers who know how to navigate a race situation. What a job. What did you do this July? drove the French president around France so he could watch a bike race. Last up, the tour to France hairdresser. There aren’t that many sporting events that exist in the world that are so long you need a haircut midway through, but the tour to France is one of them. The race start will usually have what can only be described as a rather large village set up for every stage so riders and fans or media can grab a coffee, read the paper or get a haircut whilst waiting to start. Nothing like a tidy trim before a line out in the gutter. There you go then. A few weird and wonderful jobs that keep the toile france on the road. Let me know if you’d be up for doing any of these in the comments section down below. As always, thanks for watching. See you on the next video.