Monday was the first rest day of the 2026 Tour de France — an occasion that the peloton had been looking forward to since rolling off the time trial ramp in Barcelona nine days earlier.There is a usual pattern to these days: a slow morning, a team ride, and a group coffee, before a handful of media obligations in the afternoon and an early night. Some teams organised fun activities — Visma Lease-a-Bike, for example, held a quiz for riders and staff, with the most popular question asking which soigneur had beaten Tadej Pogačar up a climb in their junior racing careers.But really, ahead of a hard stage ten in the Massif Central, these rest days are about recovery — which several teams complained they were unable to get.UNO-X’s twins, Anders and Tobias Halland Johannessen, posted a video on Instagram of them having taken their beds outside onto the balcony, sleeping outside with eyemasks, due to the condition of the room, containing dirt and dozens of spider webs.
Their teammate, Danish champion Magnus Cort, provided more detail in a lengthy review on Instagram — the popular 33-year-old generally posts about every Tour hotel he stays in under the hashtags #RoomsAndRatings and #ItIsHardToBeACyclist.“It has an amazing view and looks pretty good on the outside,” he said of the hotel, situated near the summit of Le Lioran, the finish of Tuesday’s stage, and a lodging where he had stayed before.“But in reality, it is amongst the worst places I have stayed. It wasn’t completely soaked this time and only a small smell of rot. We also had the luxury of dry toilet paper. I had a sink in the closet that was nice to have so I didn’t have to walk two sets of stairs during the night. It is hard to say much more positive things about this place.“It was dirty, no air-conditioning and no WiFi. It was very (well-)used with many broken things like the holder for toilet paper and shower head. Even though it was better than last time it will still only get 1 out of 7 stars.”
