Ten minutes before their start times on August 4, riders at the Tour de France Femmes reported for equipment checks. Cycling had never run in quite this way before. Alongside the usual bike weighing, commissaires were examining jerseys for anything shaping the chest.
The stage was a 21-kilometer individual time trial from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon. The night before, a jury communique had warned that particular attention would be paid to article 1.3.032 of the UCI regulations, covering non-essential clothing or accessories "which could modify riders' morphology." The trigger was a report by Dutch outlet Wielerflits that several Women's WorldTeams believed a small number of riders were exploiting chest volume in time trials, padded bras included.
