Awill we have to say goodbye to the Tour de France in the summer? According to our colleagues from Parisian, Tuesday, July 26, although no decision has – yet – been taken in this direction, on the side of the runners it is no longer a taboo. In question ? The multiplication of heat waves that affect all regions of France, like the last edition of the Grande Boucle, which ended on July 24th. A week earlier, in fact, the stage between Rodez and Carcassonne had been trying for the whole peloton, while the south-west of the country was still on heat wave vigilance.
According to our colleagues from the Ile-de-France – who are based on data provided by Météo-France –, between 1990 and 2022, the maximum average temperatures recorded in the places most frequented by the Tour are significantly on the rise. For example, the laces of Alpe-d’Huez have seen their temperature increase by 4°C in three decades. Ditto for Bordeaux where the values communicated by meteorologists oscillate around 30°C. For Gilles Roussey, doctor in exercise physiology and author of a thesis on the sports/heat relationship, in fact, the feeling can be even worse. “On a stage like that of July 17 [entre Rodez et Carcassonne]you can easily reach 50°C in feeling”, he explains to the Parisian.
If, until now, the peloton had not expressed itself frankly on this point, things could well change. Like Frenchman Romain Bardet, who spoke of a race that was far from “pleasant”. Same observation for Hugo Hofstetter. “There are red alerts in the region. On TV, we tell people not to go out and we run anyway, we drive 210 kilometers ”, he declared in the columns of The Team.
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In detail, some major figures in the peloton have been complaining for several years about the lack of adaptation. Philippe Gilbert, world champion in road cycling in 2012, pleads to reduce the steps during hot weather. He puts forward a simple principle, as soon as the temperature of the air equals that of the body, then the stage must be shortened. For the time being, nothing allows us to say that this rule will one day be applied. “I would not have liked to be in the place of the organizer if a runner had had a cardiac arrest”, he estimated at the end of the Rodez-Carcassonne stage.
According to specialist Gilles Roussey, a possible change in the calendar is not about to happen. “Unfortunately, it will take an accident to wonder, while all of this can be anticipated now,” he says. According to him, the question of maintaining a tour at the beginning of July and with departures in the middle of the afternoon arises. With 109 editions on the clock, the Tour de France is an almost immovable rendezvous in the hearts of the French. For many, it marks the start of summer holidays. For others, it is one of the only entertainments during the summer holidays. According to climate experts, the coming years should not be cooler than the previous ones.
So, if the question is not necessarily on the agenda of the organizers of the Grande Boucle, it is very likely that it will be invited very soon. Especially since in 2020 the race had been postponed by several weeks while France and Europe were in the midst of the first wave of coronavirus. If this remains an exception, it could soon become the norm.
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