How Erin Aniker's sketchbook doodles ended up painted over penis graffiti on the Tour de France route

Not many illustrators can say their sketchbook doodles have been broadcast to billions on live TV. Fewer still can say those doodles were painted over penises to get there. But that's exactly where London-based illustrator Erin Aniker has found herself this summer.

Every year, hundreds of penises are graffitied onto the men's Tour de France route. So many that organisers employ a dedicated crew, the 'Erasermen', to paint over them before the peloton and the world's TV cameras roll through. But instead of scrubbing them out, a campaign covers them with something loads better: bold, playful artworks urging the men's race's enormous audience to tune in to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - the women's race, run on its own route the following month and racing right now.

Open sketchbook showing pen drawings of stylised faces and figures with purple circular stamp marks, resting on a black surface with blue text and a pink container visible

Person holding a printed stencil design featuring bold blue and yellow circular motifs for the #WatchTheFemmes campaign inside a car

Three people apply a stencil design of a frog onto a white sheet laid on a road, with a paint tin and brush nearby, as part of the #WatchTheFemmes campaign

From sketchbook to roadside, artworks designed by Erin Aniker and Cécile Dormeau, painted by Jo Hicks and Mathilde Jacquemet from Global Street Art Agency and the Erasermen

We covered the trial run of #WatchTheFemmes last summer, when the idea was tested on a single stage.

This year, it's officially launched and properly scaled up, with an all-women team of artists behind it: Erin and French illustrator Cécile Dormeau designed the stencils, while street artists Jo Hicks and Mathilde Jacquemet – working alongside the Erasermen themselves – applied and hand-painted the designs across the route. The clean-up crew has become the distribution network. Balls become eyeballs (lol). Crude scrawls become an advert for the women's peloton.

Colourful cartoon illustrations by Erin Aniker featuring expressive faces, hands, and figures on a textured grey background with the hashtag #WatchTheFemmes below

Three colourful cartoon characters with playful designs featuring eyes and wheels, with #WatchTheFemmes hashtag below in white text on dark background

Three colourful stencil designs featuring female cyclists and athletes with #WatchTheFemmes and Femmes Vive Les campaign text on textured grey background

It was no leisurely paint job, either. "The painters Jo, Mathilde and the Erasermen often only had minutes to transform the penis graffiti before the cyclists and TV cameras got there," Erin tells Creative Boom, "so they had to be very quick."

For Erin, the whole thing has been a bit of a pinch-me moment. "It was really surreal and fun to see my sketches travel from doodles in my own sketchbooks in East London to be transformed into huge painted designs on the tarmac of the famous Tour de France route, broadcast to billions around the world on live TV," she says. "And all for a cause that is close to my heart, too, with women's sports – drawing our eyes onto the champion women cyclists currently racing on the Tour de France Femmes."

Yellow-outlined illustration of a badminton racket and shuttlecock painted on tarmac as part of the #WatchTheFemmes campaign on the Tour de France route

Crowds of spectators line a city street watching cyclists from the Tour de France pass by, with yellow Continental sponsorship boards visible along the route

Škoda team members stand beside a teal and white branded car with its boot open, displaying campaign materials on a roadside during the Tour de France route activation

Aerial view of a road lined with green vegetation showing painted artwork featuring two blue eye designs and yellow text promoting the Tour de France Femmes, with cars parked alongside

The men's Tour de France reaches a global TV audience of more than 3.5 billion; the women's race, around 23 million. By hijacking the men's route and its viewership, the campaign turns an annual nuisance into free airtime for the women's race that follows – and which is racing right now.

The campaign was produced with Global Street Art and AMV BBDO, and backed by Škoda, which began life in 1895 as a bicycle manufacturer and remains the main partner of the women's race.

The Tour de France Femmes races until Sunday 9 August. As Erin puts it: "Make sure to #WatchTheFemmes!"