Before every stage of the Tour de France, a crew of workers drive along the route in their van, painting over any phallic imagery on the roads or walls.
They are trying to prevent TV cameras picking up on the wrong kind of French ‘Coq’, rather than the one that adorns the Le Coq Sportif logos of the Yellow Jersey.
Cleaning the road surface of these images would be too time-consuming and expensive so instead, the workers add paint turning genitals into owls, butterflies and other creative imagery.
As well as genitalia, the staff also paint over offensive or political messages.
