Škoda turns crude graffiti at the Tour de France into spotlight for women’s peloton

Every year, the Tour de France faces a challenge: hundreds of penis drawings graffitied onto the race route.

Typically, the organisers deploy a specialist team known as the ‘Eraser Men’ to remove offensive graffiti from the route before it is broadcast around the world. Armed with rollers and large quantities of paint, the team works stage by stage to cover the markings before the race passes through.

But this time, the race’s main partner, Škoda, and creative agency AMV BBDO had other plans. They turned the drawings into artwork promoting the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, using the visibility of the men’s race to shine a spotlight on the women’s peloton.

Škoda, which was originally founded as a bicycle manufacturer more than 130 years ago, has supported the Tour de France for over two decades. It has also been a partner of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift since the race was relaunched in 2022.

Shining a spotlight

This year, on certain stages Škoda will equip the Eraser Men with specially designed stencils created by female artists, allowing them to transform the graffiti into striking artworks that celebrate the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

For the 2026 campaign, Škoda has partnered with French illustrator Celine Dormeau and London-based illustrator Erin Aniker. Their designs incorporate the original graffiti and transform it into bold visual imagery that promotes the women’s race and encourages fans to follow the action through #WatchTheFemmes, the official race hashtag.

While the men’s Tour de France attracts a global television audience of more than 3.5 billion, the women’s race reaches around 23 million viewers. This campaign aims to leverage the Tour de France audiences to help promote women’s cycling and boost those viewing figures.

Playful and bold

Skoda Auto CMO Meredith Kelly says Škoda has a long history of supporting the cycling community.

“As a brand that is known for bringing creative solutions to real-life challenges, we chose this playful and bold approach to build awareness to women’s cycling and give it the visibility it deserves. The Eraser Men do their best to remove as many of these marketings as possible, but there are always more to deal with; these stencils allow us to turn something negative into something positive, to help promote the women’s race and encourage more people to watch it.”

The campaign will be visible on the race route throughout the Tour de France and broadcast to the event’s global television audience. It will also run across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook from July 24.

To support the campaign launch, imagery will include a collection of artwork executions showing how the original graffiti has been transformed into finished illustrations. Additional photography from last year’s campaign will also be made available.