A suspect has been identified in a scandal that\u2019s rocking the Giro d\u2019Italia \u2013 unruly riders with bloated bladders peeing in their water bottles.<\/p>\n
According to an expert investigation by Belgian reporters, Victor Campenaerts was one of the first to make the \u201cpee bottle\u201d a thing.<\/p>\n
And judging by recent evidence from this Giro d\u2019Italia, Campenaerts \u2013 the superdomestique of Jonas Vingegaard \u2013 is having toilet troubles.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been fined a total of 400 Swiss Francs during the past week having twice been caught urinating in public.<\/p>\n
At 35, Belgian veteran Oliver Naesen has been around long enough to know who pees in bottles and who doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
And he wasn\u2019t withholding any allegations on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known about \u2018pee bottles\u2019 since the days of Peter Sagan \u2013 he did that often,\u201d Naesen told Sporza<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019ve only known two who do it: Campi [Victor Campenaerts \u2013 ed<\/em>] and Sagan.\u201d<\/p>\n Arjen Liyvns of XDS-Astana joined Naesen in citing Campenaerts as one of the originators of the so-called \u201cpee bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think he was one of the first I saw doing it,\u201d Liyvns said Tuesday.<\/p>\n The testimony is damming.<\/p>\n A concurrent investigation by Het Nieuwsblad<\/em> also points toward Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s top rouleur as a prime suspect with a weak bladder.<\/p>\n Pee-gate hit the press Sunday night after Giro d\u2019Italia stage 9 when UCI officials issued an usual warning to the peloton \u2013 stop peeing in your bottles, darn it.<\/p>\n Roadside fans take these things home, remember?<\/p>\n \u201cTo respect the image of cycling and the Giro d\u2019Italia, the organizer and the Commissaires\u2019 Panel inform all riders that urinating into a bottle and subsequently discarding it is strictly prohibited,\u201d read that evening\u2019s jury report.<\/p>\n According to Quick-Step racer Dries van Gestel, this high-speed urinary solution is a phenomenon of the few.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really a thing in the peloton, but only among some riders,\u201d he told Sporza<\/em>.<\/p>\n Attending to \u201cthe call of nature\u201d during a bike race is clearly problematic, no matter what the chosen method.<\/p>\n Riders are sanctioned for it all season long.<\/p>\n As of stage 10 on Tuesday, at least six riders at the Giro d\u2019Italia have been sanctioned for inappropriate peeing. It\u2019s unclear whether this was for pulling over in public places or simply doing it on the move.<\/p>\n Naesen, Van Gestel, and Jan Christen were fined 200 CHF on stage 2 for urinating in public.<\/p>\n Prime suspect Campenaerts was cited and sanctioned 200 CHF on stage 3 for urinating in the neutral section, as was Maximilian Walscheid. Rasmus Pedersen was also fined that day for urinating after the flag was dropped.<\/p>\n Campenaerts was fined again<\/em> on stage 8 for \u201curinating in front of the public during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n So does Campenaerts have a pee problem? A weak bladder, maybe?<\/p>\n Is he the cause of the Giro\u2019s unusual warning?<\/p>\n According to Sporza<\/em>, he was caught \u201cin action\u201d at the 2024 Tour de France when TV cameras caught him sticking a bottle up the inner leg of his shorts.<\/p>\n For now, the wiley 34-year-old is relying on the premise of \u201cinnocent until proven guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have no idea what this is about,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n According to Van Gestel, the Giro d\u2019Italia\u2019s toilet troubles stem from the race\u2019s own success.<\/p>\n Huge crowds showed up for the Bulgarian grande partenza<\/em>, and the Italian tifosi<\/em> can never get enough of the corsa rosa<\/em> coming to their home town.<\/p>\n \u201cThey aren\u2019t making it any easier,\u201d Van Gestel said. \u201cI understand that you can\u2019t take a pee break in the city center, and you try to find places where there are no people standing.<\/p>\n \u201cBut on stages with good weather, people come out to watch the race. Then it is difficult to find a good spot to pee,\u201d Van Gestel said. \u201cVictor solved that by opening his bottle and relieving himself.\u201d<\/p>\n And worst of all? It\u2019s the tifosi<\/em> who covet souvenir water bottles more than any other bike nerd.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is jumping for them \u2013 Italian fans want our water bottles most,\u201d Nasesen told Sporza<\/em>. \u201cI can imagine some are negatively surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n The takeaway from all this?<\/p>\n Next time you go to a bike race, collect discarded bottles at your own peril. Especially if it\u2019s wrapped in Visma-Lease a Bike logos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia-peloton-identifies-who-pee-in-bottles\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bidon.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated May 20, 2026 11:12AM A suspect has been identified in a scandal that\u2019s rocking the Giro d\u2019Italia \u2013 unruly riders with bloated bladders peeing in their water bottles. According to an expert investigation by Belgian reporters, Victor Campenaerts was one of the first to make the \u201cpee bottle\u201d a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1946744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}UCI officials clamp down on weak bladders<\/h2>\n
![\"Riders](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2262944926.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Camepanerts: \u2018Not guilty\u2019<\/h2>\n
Be careful which bottles you collect at the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224619940.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")