Last Tour the France showed the revival of the nose strips. Important cyclists like Jonas Vinegaard (who finished second), Jonathan Milan (green jersey), Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert were regularly seen with a plaster on their nose. The Dane Mattias Skjelmose even showed off a special design every day.
There is nothing new to this. Nearly thirty years ago some sportsmen also used such strips, including Tour winner Jan Ulrich, but also tennis icon Andre Agassi.
But now there is really a revival. They are used by tennis champion Carlos Alcaraz, skier Sofia Goggia and a lot of footballers. “It’s for my health. I have a slight cold and can breathe better this way,” Alcaraz recently said.
They were originally invented to try to help snorers, but the opinion of medical experts is very clear: “Nasal strips can slightly widen the internal nasal valve, allowing slightly more air to enter, especially in people whose nasal valve is naturally narrower. This can certainly provide some comfort during light exertion, but there’s no evidence that it also makes a difference in athletic performance or maximum oxygen uptake capacity.”
In fact, no one denies that they are at best a placebo and probably just a fashion. The Belgian cyclist and former hour record holder Victor Campenaerts, described as a “long-time nose-strip aficionado”, may be responsible for its renewed popularity, since he frequently and enthusiastically spoke about them in his daily Tour vlogs on Instagram.