The question arises naturally: "But are we sure this is how we safeguard cycling's image?". The facts: Mathieu Van der Poel was fined yesterday by the jury of the Tour de Suisse for inappropriate clothing worn while sitting on the hot seat during the time trial. 

Yesterday in Aarburg it was 34 degrees, the masters of "perceived temperature" would probably tell us it felt even hotter, and the Dutch champion had to sit there for over an hour after posting the fastest time and waiting for Tadej Pogacar to arrive and beat him by 31 hundredths of a second.

So at some point, what did Van der Poel do? He took off his shoes, removed his jersey, and settled back down, just like any of us would do on the couch at home, in an attempt to reduce the suffering as much as possible.

The VAR, relentless, did... watch television: images of Van der Poel were broadcast live and a fine of 500 Swiss francs was issued. 

Who knows if anyone, in the upper offices well-supplied with air conditioning in Aigle, has ever considered that cycling doesn't have the same timeframes as other sports and that waiting on the hot seat can last for hours? And that over the years we've seen people on that seat changing clothes, eating, drinking, falling asleep, getting bored, yawning (the image! who knows why they didn't fine them...), receiving friends, bundling up against the cold, chattering their teeth and so on.

The question arises naturally: "But are we sure this is how we safeguard cycling's image?".