The Tour de France is in full swing, and it's hot. Really hot. Global warming has been pushing temperatures up across France, where they've been unusually high for weeks. And the race is starting to feel it.
The Tour is already the toughest race on the calendar: 21 stages across France (and sometimes a few in a neighbouring country) over 24 days, and four to five hours of cycling a day. As it's always been a July race, heat has long been part of the deal. But this year is different.
A new heatwave began on 4 July, the very day the race started. Temperatures had topped 35°C for over a week, with some stages pushing past 40°C. Wildfires in southern France almost caused one stage to be cancelled. Another was shortened because of the extreme heat, a first in the race's history.
Although hydration rules were loosened so that riders could carry more water, the teams are suffering. Cramps, exhaustion, heatstroke, and body temperatures that can exceed 40°C. One rider told reporters he'd lost 4.5 kg in one single stage. “At times, the air was so hot it felt like opening an oven door,” said another.
Keeping cool during and after the race has become a logistical nightmare for the cyclists. Before the start, staff zip them into ice vests and dunk their forearms in tubs of ice water, and during the race, it's ice-slush gels, ice-stuffed socks, and a lot of water.
One team went through 180 water bottles in a single stage (that's around 11 litres per rider). Right after crossing the finish line, some riders are jumping into ice baths to bring their body temperature down.
Four-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar, who is currently dominating the race, called for change. “If I had the power I would change all the calendar and not race in July and August in hot places,” he said after his stage was shortened because of the heat.
Experts have been saying the same thing. “We need urgent adaptation to our current climate,” warned Benjamin Sultan, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contributor who co-authored a study on heat and the Tour.
He called for moving the race dates or shifting more stages to northern France. Starting stages at 05.00 in the morning rather than early afternoon is another option. But organisers aren't keen, since fewer people would be watching on TV or lining the streets. And that would mean fewer sponsors. “There's always this balance between economic interests and public health and safety,” Sultan remarked.
On the organisers' side, there's little appetite for change. “The watchword is adaptation,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said before the race began, dismissing calls to change dates or routes. “The temperatures are rising everywhere. It's not enough to avoid this or that region in the South for it to be cooler. Same with the seasons – the first heatwave was at the end of May.”
He pointed instead to the heat protocol of the cycling world's governing body Union Cycliste Internationale. It sets several thresholds based on temperature: a shaded start line area for riders, more hydration spots throughout the race, and in the most extreme cases, cancelling a stage altogether. This has never happened in the Tour's history.
But for how long? “With heatwaves likely to double in the coming years due to global warming, it is only a matter of time before the race pays the price of these extreme conditions,” Sultan concluded.
Cycling isn't the only sport struggling to adapt. The French Open tennis tournament this spring was marked by record heat, and one player collapsed at the end of a match, calling the conditions “insane”. In January, the Australian Open had to trigger its extreme-heat protocol, closing roofs and suspending outdoor play.