Horror hotels, delicious desserts and José Mourinho – week two of the 2026 Tour de France on social media

It’s never easy racing at the Tour de France and this last week was no exception with high temperatures and horror hotels.

With two weeks of racing on the roads of France now behind the peloton we take a look back at how the world of cycling, including celebrity fans and a barista with panache, chronicled the last week on social media.

1. "The special one" aka José Mourinho has got his priorities all wrong here, choosing to stop watching the Tour de France to go for a run. You wouldn’t catch us doing that.

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2. The French monarchy was abolished in 1792 but if they did decide to have a king again it’d probably be Thibaut Pinot, who saw the race come through his hometown this last week.

3. EF Education-EasyPost chefs Owen Blandy and Chris Woodward are taking you on a culinary Tour de France as they breakdown/show off all the deliciousness they’re cooking up for the riders each day over on their Instagram.

4. The iceman - AKA Silvan Dillier - cometh! Be afraid, be very afraid.

5. Apparently there has been some other big international sporting event going on over the last week, I dunno what it’s called, but the Tour organisers decided to pit riders of France and Spain against each other last Tuesday in tribute. Weirdly, the French organisers seem to lose interest after that.

6. It’s not a bike race unless someone is dressed in a rabbit costume/devil outfit/mankini. To all those that do so, we salute you.

7. The Tour is a glamorous event, until you reach your hotel and discover you’d be better off sleeping on the balcony.

8. “How bad can it be though really?” you ask. Pretty bad, as Tobias’s brother Anders shows.

This combined with UAE Emirates-XRG sleeping in hotel with no air conditioning led to something of a social media story that meant Tour race director Christian Prudhomme had to step in and respond. "If we want the race to visit beautiful parts of France and have beautiful stages, it means that sometimes there aren't five-star hotels everywhere," he told ICI.

9. If you ask us Uno-X’s real problem was that after what was clearly not a great night’s sleep they didn’t have Julian Alaphilippe to make them coffee in the morning.

10. Let’s end on a high note with the always reliable social media trope of rider’s kids at the Tour de France. This time it’s Tiesj Benoot and his daughter.