Anybody notice the ingenious device Nico Roche's team is using on the Tour de France?

So clever and convenient, you'd really wonder why they never thought of it before; today was the first time we'd seen this used.

 

 

They say the simple ideas are often the best, and we had an example of just that on today's opening stage of the Tour de France.

With 190km facing the riders on the road from Leeds to Harrogate and the summer sun shining on the field, it was vital they continued to get the liquids in.

Mostly in these races, riders refuel by taking on full new bottles in their musette, or small canvas bag, handed up to them as they whizz past the roadside feed zones.

Alternatively, a rider drops back to the cavalcade and takes new bottles from his team vehicle, often for distribution to his team mates when he rejoins the bunch.

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On many big stages the role of some domestiques is reduced to that of water carrier, especially before the racing is full gas and it's still possible to move up and down between bunch and team car laden down with heavy bottles.

But sometimes you can't get back to a team car because the field splits and the vehicle is simply too far back the road, or because a mountain is so packed with spectators that mobility is limited.

Indeed, some climbs are so narrow and steep the team cars aren't allowed up them and often the action is so chaotic anyway you'll lose all track of where your team cars or team mates are.

 

 

For those sections of stages when domestiques know the opportunity to fetch more bottles is going to be limited, Tinkoff-Saxo has come up with the perfect solution.

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It's a very light mesh vest a rider wears over a jersey and is fitted with pockets especially designed to take a bottle. In the photos used here that emerged today, the rider in question has five bottles packed into his vest.

But it could easily be designed for eight. And at a push a couple more could be carried around the front.

It's simply a more organised way of carrying bottles than stuffing them up your jersey, a la Mark Cavendish below.

And because the bottles would stay in position, you could (though you wouldn't want to - Ed) ride for much longer with spare bidons in the vest rather than hoping they'll stay stuffed into a jersey.

So this genuinely is a new piece of kit that can greatly aid the convenient supply of water on the road just when you need it; absolutely vital in a race like the Tour.

 

 

Here's a close-up

 

 

Here's the alternative