The Tour de France is set to race the full 205 kilometres from Rodez to Carcassonne on Sunday, despite forecasts of 38-40°C (100°F-104°F) temperatures for the southwest of France.
While professional cycling has an Extreme Weather Protocol and races have been cut or cancelled due to extreme conditions, the Tour de France peloton seems ready to accept racing through the heat wave.
The Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) riders association and their Tour de France representative Pascal Chanteur have been in contact with their riders, Tour de France organisers, UCI judges and team managers to find several solutions to help the riders.
Cyclingnews understands ace organisers are set to create water sprays along the stage to douse the riders and cool the roads with the help of local firefighters, while the UCI judges will turn a blind eye to littering as riders grab extra bidons and drinks during the day from the roadsides and additional race motorbikes.
As a further measure, the UCI judges announced that feeding will be allowed until the final 10km of the stage in the official communique issued on Saturday evening.
“On Sunday, the rise in temperatures continues, in particular in the South-West where values close to 40°C will often be reached,” an official French weather warning said, with a third of the 101 French departments given an orange heat wave warning. No red warnings [heat that causes adverse health effects] have yet been issued.
“It will be the same for everyone,” Tadej Pogačar said of racing in the heat before the recent Alpine stages
“You just have to keep your body cool enough. I don’t think anyone likes to race for five hours in the 40-degree [heat], I don’t even think it’s healthy for us.”
Pogačar has taken to wearing an ice vest as he signs on and lines up before the stage starts. He also puts ice cubes down his socks before riding to the start and ice packs on his neck during the stages.
The Tour’s final transition stages from the Alps to the Pyrénées via the Occitanie region will see the peloton ride into a heat wave rising across Europe from North Africa and Spain.
The road surface will be hotter than the air temperature, reflecting heat up to the riders and possibly damaging the road surface. French authorities intend to have firefighters spray the roads with 10,000 litres of water to cool the surface 15 minutes ahead of the riders to lower the temperatures.
“During a heatwave, such as the one we are expecting of over 38 degrees, the road temperature goes up to around 60 degrees,” French road safety coordinator Andre Bancala told the AFP news agency.
“If the road surface is 55 or 60 degrees, and the cyclists are only 20 centimetres above that, then the rider is subject to exposure to extreme temperatures,” Bancala explained.
“The absolute record for heat was in 2010 with a road temperature of 63 degrees when Sylvain Chavanel won in the Jura, but this weekend we may even break that. So we are mobilising to combat that.”
Fortunately for the riders, the worst of the heatwave could hit southwestern France during Monday’s third rest day.
Temperatures are expected to fall to a more reasonable 32°C for Tuesday’s 178.5km stage from Carcassonne to Foix in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
🔶 38 dpts et l’Andorre en #vigilanceOrangeRestez informés sur https://t.co/rJ24zzDXpC pic.twitter.com/ranebYtKV1July 16, 2022
