Tour hotels in the firing line: The problem with accommodation at the Tour de France

The Tour de France is regarded as the world’s biggest cycle race. Billions of viewers follow the race, whilst the best riders of their generation battle it out for seconds, glory and the yellow jersey. This makes it all the more surprising that one topic sparks debate year after year: the hotels.

The same applies to the this year’s Tour de France Reports from riders and teams about substandard accommodation are mounting. Complaints range from a lack of air conditioning and poor hygiene to mould, insects and broken facilities. The conditions at some of the accommodation were the subject of public discussion, particularly on the rest day in the Massif Central. Riders from Uno-X Mobility, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Picnic PostNL shared photos and videos that hardly befit the prestige of the Tour de France. In some cases, professional riders even decided they would rather sleep on balconies or terraces than in their rooms.

Magnus’s hotel blog during the Tour de France

For the fans, the hotels have now become almost as exciting as some of the race stages. Magnus Cort, in particular, has played a major part in this. The Dane from the Team Uno-X Mobility has been regularly reviewing his Tour de France accommodation on Instagram for years. Using the hashtags #RoomsAndRatings and #ItsHardToBeACyclist, he awards stars to the rooms he stays in. However, he doesn’t use the usual five-star system, but rather a scale of one to seven stars.

What makes this special is that Cort takes it all in his stride with a remarkable sense of humour. Instead of just complaining, he posts short hotel reviews complete with photos and witty comments. Sometimes it’s about missing Wi-Fi connections, sometimes about odd bathroom facilities, broken showers or the infamous missing toilet brush. Despite all the criticism, there’s usually a good dose of irony in there. That’s precisely why his reviews are so popular. They give fans a rare insight into the everyday lives of the professionals away from the racetracks.

"One of the worst places I've ever stayed in"

Cort’s review of the hotel on the first rest day was particularly sensational. The Dane stayed there twice and awarded just one out of seven stars for his accommodation in the ski resort of Le Lioran. He still remembered the hotel from the previous edition of the tour. In his summary, he described it as one of the worst places he had ever stayed in. He reported dirt, a lack of air conditioning, no Wi-Fi and faulty furnishings. Even the positive aspects of his accommodation were described with his usual dry humour.

What is particularly noteworthy is that Cort was by no means alone in this view. Other riders and teams also complained about the hygiene standards. Reports of cobwebs, dead insects and dirty rooms quickly began to circulate. Some riders preferred to sleep under the open sky.

How can something like that happen at the Tour de France?

The obvious question is: how can it be that the world’s best professional cyclists have to stay in accommodation that, in some cases, does not even meet average holiday standards?

The answer lies in the unique structure of the Tour de France. Unlike many other sporting events, the Tour takes place in a different location every day. For each stage, around 1,850 beds must be found for riders, support staff, journalists and organisers. Particularly in remote regions of France, the ASO, as the organiser, regularly reaches its limits in this regard. There are simply not enough high-quality hotels available there.

Particularly in mountainous or rural areas, the organisers must therefore make use of accommodation that is not normally designed to house several WorldTour teams at the same time.

Prudhomme does not see any fundamental problem

Tour Director Christian Prudhomme has now responded to the recent complaints. The Frenchman defended the existing system, pointing out that the Tour deliberately passes through remote and scenic regions of France. He said that anyone wanting spectacular stages in the mountains and on the country’s most beautiful roads would have to accept that luxury hotels are not available everywhere in those areas.

Above all, however, Prudhomme emphasised another point: fairness. ASO allocates the hotels to the teams itself. This is intended to prevent financially strong teams from gaining an advantage, whilst smaller teams have to make do with inferior options. According to Prudhomme, care is taken to ensure that, by the end of the Tour, each team has accumulated a comparable total number of hotel stars. The travel routes to the start and finish locations are also distributed as evenly as possible.

Fair does not automatically mean good

However, this is precisely where the real debate begins. Whilst the even distribution of hotel categories does address the issue of fairness between the teams, it does not address the question of the quality of the accommodation itself.

If several teams are accommodated in a venue with no working air conditioning, poor hygiene or damaged facilities, this may well apply equally to everyone. However, that does not make the venue any better.

Especially at a time when the physical demands of the Tour de France are becoming ever greater and riders are increasingly having to contend with extreme heat, recovery is becoming ever more important. Sleep quality has long been a key factor in performance. Many teams invest millions in nutrition, equipment, aerodynamics and recovery measures. This makes it all the more contradictory when riders then end up in hotels that barely meet their basic requirements.

Perhaps the most charming side event of the tour

For Magnus Cort, however, the whole thing remains above all a source of entertainment. With his reviews, the Dane has created one of the Tour’s most charming side stories. Whilst other riders talk about wattage, tactics or kit, he turns hotel rooms into stories. And perhaps that is precisely why his Instagram posts are so popular.

They show a side of the Tour de France that fans normally never get to see: behind the glossy images of the world’s biggest cycle race, there are sometimes nothing more than broken shower heads, no Wi-Fi and just one star out of a possible seven.