Sleeping on the balcony due to the lamentable state of their hotel on the Tour

The anecdotes about hotels are almost a yearly part of the Tour de France. Accommodations lacking expected comforts, rooms in questionable conditions, or significant differences between the establishments assigned to each team often leave curious images during the three weeks of racing. This year is no different: after it was revealed that the hotel of UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Tadej Pogačar had lost air conditioning during a heatwave, brothers Tobias and Anders Halland Johannessen have shown an even more striking situation.

The Johannessen brothers take their mattresses to the balcony due to the state of their room

The Uno-X Mobility riders decided to move their mattresses to the balcony and sleep outdoors after checking the conditions of the room they had been assigned during the Tour de France.

Tobias and Anders Halland Johannessen shared images and videos on their social media showing dirt, dust, cobwebs, and even the presence of insects inside the accommodation. Faced with such a scenario, the two Norwegian cyclists opted for a solution as simple as it is unusual for riders competing in the world's most important race: taking the mattresses out of the room and spending the night on the balcony.

Tobias Halland Johannessen showcased the improvised resting area on Instagram with a message that humorously summarized the situation: “Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. The inside of the hotel: questionable. The outside: really nice.”

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tobias Johannessen (@tobias_johannessen)

His brother Anders had also previously posted images of the state of the room. He did so after the problems faced by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG with the air conditioning in their hotel became known and accompanied the video with another ironic comment: “It could be worse, this is ours.”

The scene again shows one of the lesser-known sides of the Tour de France. While teams move buses, kitchen trucks, and a huge infrastructure aimed at taking care of every last detail of their riders' recovery, the conditions of the hotels can vary significantly from one day to the next.

Teams depend on hotels assigned by the organization

The explanation lies in the complex accommodation system of a race that moves thousands of people every day. Hotels are assigned to teams by ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, based on the availability around each stage finish and start.

This causes significant differences between the accommodations received by different teams. One team may spend a night in a high-level establishment and find themselves the next day with rooms without air conditioning or, as happened to the Johannessen brothers, with cleaning conditions that led them to consider it more pleasant to sleep outdoors.

In a race where recovery and rest are fundamental after each stage, the Uno-X Mobility riders decided to take the situation with humor. The image of Tobias and Anders Halland Johannessen sleeping with the mattresses on the balcony thus stands as one of the first great hotel anecdotes of this Tour de France 2026.