No motorhomes for TDF riders?

Paris - Motorhomes may be banned for riders on the Tour de France as the International Cycling Union (UCI) looks to preserve the fairness between the teams, Team Sky have the intention on taking them to the race for their staff.

"We'll allow the staff in the motorhomes," team manager Dave Brailsford said on Monday as he named his nine-man squad for the Tour.

The move, he explained, will free up hotel rooms and allow some riders to enjoy a full room for themselves while they usually sleep in twin rooms in hotels provided by organisers.

"In all road stage races on the international calendar the organisers must cover the subsistence expenses of the teams from the night before the start to the final day," the UCI's management committee said in a statement earlier this month.

"Riders must stay in the hotels provided by the organiser throughout the entire duration of the race. The decision was made in order to reaffirm absolute fairness between all riders."

Sky tried out the motorhome setup with Richie Porte in last month's Giro d'Italia.

Brailsford feels some hotels provided this year were "not great" and says that being able to sleep in familiar surroundings would help to improve the daily recovery process as "sport science is massive on sleep at the moment".