Pelotan

Sunscreen is performance equipment. treats it like it.

Before the interval set, before the watch starts, the Pelotan goes on. UV loads the body the same way the session does. It drives up core temperature, adds oxidative stress, and drags on how well he recovers to go again tomorrow. Managing it is a marginal gain most athletes leave on the table (just not the U23 World Champion 🌈)

It starts in the car park. Pelotan on, rubbed in, invisible before you’ve finished your laces.

Then the mountain. Singletrack through the trees, out above the treeline, sun on the ridge for as long as you’re up there. It works harder at altitude than it does at sea level, and over a long run that adds up in the legs.

One application covers the whole day out. The climb gets your full attention. The sun gets none of it.

See you up there.

Pelotan in hand, straight off the edge into the sea.

Built to stay on when you’re wet. Sweat, salt water, a full day on the bike or in and out of the surf, it holds its ground. Sweatproof and water-resistant, made for people who actually move.

📹

Stage 2: UV Load 81. High.

Lorena Wiebes made it two from two in Geneva. Riejanne Markus looked like she’d hold on, caught inside the final 500m, and Wiebes came off the wheels with 250 to go to beat Elisa Balsamo and Marianne Vos. Two stages, two wins, still in yellow, and a record seventh Tour de France Femmes stage win to her name.

Behind the sprint, the sun had a major impact. Stage 1 scored 62 under broken cloud. Yesterday the sky cleared to 6% cover at 32.8°C, and the UV Load climbed to 81. Four hours of racing with nothing overhead.

Download the UV Load app for free at pelotan.cc, in the App Store or Google Play

A heat dome has settled over much of the US. 170 million people are under it, and records are falling from Montana to the Gulf.

When it’s this fierce, the sun is relentless, and the athletes we work with are still out in it: on the bike, on the trails, on the road, doing what they love.

Our job is the sun, that’s what Pelotan handles. SPF 30 with the maximum FDA water and sweat resistance, so it stays put through sweat and won’t run into your eyes.

has spent the summer putting it through its paces on the MTB trails, ‘sweating like a witch in church’, and he’s a convert.

Shipping nationwide from pelotan.cc

Stage 20: UV Load 94. Serious.

This was the Queen stage: five hours in the saddle and 5,600m of climbing, the most of the whole Tour. won it in Pelotan and sealed the King of the Mountains for our partner team,

Just 23°C on the day, and a UV Load of 94 (the altitude playing a big part, plus time spent in the saddle: temperature ≠ UV).

Day 6 of how UV Load works: what it does to an athlete. This is the reason we measure it. For an athlete, UV works directly against performance. Sun exposure brings on fatigue faster, even when heat is controlled for. Sunburnt skin loses more water and sweats less efficiently, which works against hydration. And a sunburn competes with the muscles for the immune and repair resources that recovery runs on, so a big dose today is still being paid back three days later, in legs that don’t quite come back.

On the Queen stage, with a whole Tour still in the legs, that’s the difference between holding a wheel and losing it. Richie went again and again, no danger of losing it yesterday.

One stage to go, all the way to Paris.

Stage 19: UV Load 87. Serious.

Tadej crushed Alpe d’Huez yesterday, on the famous 21 bends. One of the great climbs in cycling, one of the marquee days of the Tour, and the goat took it for UAE Team Emirates, one of our partner teams. Clear skies, 28°C, the sun full on the mountain: UV Load 87.

Day 5 of how UV Load works: the bands. A number on its own can be hard to feel, so we sort the 0 to 100 scale into six bands, the way a heart-rate or effort zone works: Negligible, Low, Moderate, High, Serious, Extreme. Each one tells you what a score means at a glance, and where real risk begins.

Most people spend a summer’s day in Low or Moderate. Yesterday’s 87 is Serious, second band from the top. The highest UV Load of this year’s Tour, stage 3, hit 98. Extreme, a level few athletes reach.

That’s what the bands are for: a plain word in place of a number, so you know at a glance when the sun’s worth respecting.

Stage 18: UV Load 82. High.

took it for , our partner team, on a savage mountain day: nearly 4,000m of climbing to Orcières-Merlette. One of our favourite riders, at his very best.
In his words:

“Long days in the mountains demand full focus, no distractions. With Pelotan, I know I’m protected from the sun all stage long. It’s lightweight, doesn’t run with sweat, and lets me concentrate on racing. It’s a crucial part of my kit at the Tour.”

Day 4 of how UV Load works: the 0 to 100 scale. We map the raw dose onto a curve, the way a training-stress or strain score does. It’s front-loaded. By the time the score hits 60, a rider has already taken on around 9 SED, close to four times the dose that reddens fair skin, and past the level health bodies class as high exposure. So the number is already telling you a lot well before the top.

From there the scale slows down on purpose. Each point costs more sun: going from 80 to 90 takes more UV than going from 10 all the way to 50. That keeps the top rare, so a 90 or a 98 genuinely stands out. Yesterday’s 82 already sits high, with a lot more exposure packed into every number above it.

The best days on the bike are the long ones. Out with mates, nowhere to be except the café stop for pastries.

Stage 17: UV Load 89. Serious.

Chambéry to Voiron, an epic breakaway day, and Jasper Philipsen came out on top for his 11th career Tour stage win and first of the 2026 edition. Pogačar keeps yellow.

Yesterday’s time trial makes the perfect setup for today’s science. Both stages sat under almost the same sun: a UV Index of 7.7 for the TT, 7.03 today. But the time trial lasted 32 minutes and scored a UV Load of 31. Today ran for three hours and forty-one minutes and scored 89.

Day 3 of how UV Load works: dose is intensity multiplied by time. The same strength of sun does far more damage over three hours than over thirty minutes. It’s why a short, sharp effort and a long day in the saddle can sit under an identical sky and land in completely different bands.

It’s also why the UV Load app scores your whole session, start to finish. A 20-minute walk and a four-hour ride under the same sun are two very different loads, and the app captures both. Free for everyone at pelotan.cc