Tom Pidcock used $1,000 cooling gloves for Tour de France time trial

The 2026 Tour de France has seen riders seeking out ways to stay cool as they’ve ridden through temperatures touching 40˚C. 

For much of the peloton, this has meant ice, ice and more ice. Netcompany-Ineos turned to tubs full of water ahead of the opening team time trial to keep their arms, and consequently their core temperature, cool. 

But Pinarello-Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock adopted to a far more advanced tactic than his former team. 

Ahead of yesterday’s individual time trial, Pidcock was spotted by Lucas Cycling Blog on Instagram using CoolMitts while he pedalled on a turbo trainer before it was his time to race.

• Read more: “We‘re doing things to cool down the body, but we need to cool down the planet" – Tour de France teams braced for heatwave as Europe's extreme summer continues

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CoolMitts are a thermoregulation device that deliver cooled water to a pad inside the mit. The company says the palms of your hands are “like radiators” that release heat five times greater than other skin surface areas. 

By delivering cooled water to your hands, CoolMitt says heat release is accelerated and cooled blood is sent to your heart “to cool your body from the inside out”. 

“Within seconds, you will begin to reduce the temperature in your core and in your muscles faster than normal,” CoolMitt adds. 

This tech doesn’t come cheap. The complete kit, which includes a patented cooling unit and the mitts, costs £765 / $995. That’s quite a bit more than Netcompany-Ineos’s plastic tubs.

However, the high-tech solution is in keeping with Pinarello-Q36.5’s philosophy. The Q36.5 clothing company started as a research laboratory and each item of clothing targets marginal gains while keeping your body temperature at the optimal 36.5˚C, hence its name. 

These measures appeared to work for Pidcock. The 26-year-old Brit said yesterday's stage 16 “might be the best TT I’ve ever done”.

Pidcock was only 2 minutes 7 seconds behind stage winner Remco Evenepoel and he is now in eighth place in the general classification with a comfortable 10-minute lead over TotalEnergies’ Jordan Jegat. 

If Pidcock can hang on and avoid any unfortunate incidents in the closing days of the race, this will be the first time he’s finished in the top 10 at the Tour de France.