Hundreds of offensive drawings appear on the Tour route every year, leaving a specialist clean-up crew known as the “Eraser Men” racing ahead of the peloton with paint rollers and whitewash. Their job is simple: cover the graffiti before the television helicopters find it.
For the second year running, however, Škoda are giving the Eraser Men a more imaginative option. Instead of merely painting over the drawings, the crew can transform them into colourful artworks promoting the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Yes, this is a campaign built around turning penis graffiti into publicity for women’s cycling. And yes, it is considerably smarter than that sentence makes it sound.
French illustrator Celine Dormeau and London-based artist Erin Aniker have created a collection of stencils designed specifically around the shapes commonly found on Tour roads. Once applied, the original graffiti becomes part of a bold new illustration carrying the message #WatchTheFemmes.
The drawings are not so much erased as creatively domesticated. The significant development for 2026 is that the campaign is becoming permanent. Rather than producing a one-off collection for a single edition, Škoda is handing the reusable stencil toolkit over to the Eraser Men. Whenever another roadside masterpiece appears, they will have the option of turning it into an advertisement for the women’s race.
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Every transformed drawing becomes a reminder that the yellow-jersey action does not end when the peloton reaches Paris. Six days later, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins in Switzerland, offering another nine stages of racing from August 1 to 9.
And the 2026 edition should not need much help convincing established cycling fans to keep watching. Its record 1,175-kilometre route crosses Switzerland and France, with a 21-kilometre individual time trial and a summit finish on Mont Ventoux among the highlights. The sporting appeal is already there, and the campaign’s job is to ensure more of the enormous Tour audience follows the race from one start line to the next.
Škoda is a natural brand to make that connection. The company began as a bicycle manufacturer more than 130 years ago, has supported the Tour de France for over two decades and has partnered with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift since its relaunch in 2022.
A collection of stencils will not close the audience gap between men’s and women’s cycling on its own. But every transformed doodle is another invitation to keep watching once the men’s yellow jersey has been decided.
For once, the appearance of a giant piece of roadside anatomy could be good news for cycling.
