Tour de France and Climate Change

Today's stage of the Tour de France takes the race from Spain, where it has been for the first 2 stages and across the border (and the Pyrenees into France). I am planning to watch every minute of it on HBO Max / TNT Sports. 

The race has been affected by wildfires - and the threat of wildfires - today.

These are just one of the impacts of climate change on the race - which are likely to increase in the coming years. High temperatures will obviously affect the riders, given the huge efforts they are putting in.

There are some restrictions on the race today, and the commentators have just explained the rules imposed on the race when it enters France.

• The tour caravan will not precede the race - this usually hands out shirts, hats and sweets and other items and is a major part of the event for many as it builds up the expectation for what is to follow.
• The event will be limited to the passage of cyclists and vehicles essential for the running of the race (no spectators).
• The public is asked not to gather along the route or at the finish line.

It remains to be seen what changes will need to take place to the race schedule and routes in the weeks ahead - and the Vuelta in Southern Spain (and the Giro through Italy) will also potentially be affected by these issues.

The story is featured in The Guardian.

With temperatures of up to 44 degrees forecast, there is a suggestion that stages may even need to be cancelled. This would be a first.

“It’s something that’s very much on our mind,” said Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour’s technical director. “It’s not the first time we have faced this, but this time it’s worse because of what we have already experienced in May and June.”

“Heatstroke is an extremely serious emergency,” said Emilio Magni, the medical director of the XDS Astana team that is racing in the Tour. “The temperature regulation systems in the brain begin to fail. Then cardiac activity, circulation and the dilation of blood vessels are affected. It is like a short circuit.”

“Instead of having the stage starts as late as we do now, we should move them to nine in the morning to finish by two thirty in the afternoon,” said Pascal Chanteur, the president of France’s professional cyclists union.

The scale of the race makes changes difficult, as do TV schedules which mean that the race can't easily be moved to earlier or later in the day.