Tadej Pogacar calls for cycling calendar overhaul due to heatwave

Ussel – Tour de France king Tadej Pogacar said on July 12 that if he had his own way, he would not race at all in the hottest summer months.

The 27-year-old Slovenian was speaking in the central Correze region after the ninth stage of the Tour de France, which had been shortened by around 30km because of a “red alert” warning due to an intense heatwave.

Every day since the 113th edition of the Tour started in Barcelona on July 4, riders have braved temperatures of up to 35 deg C and at times up to 40 deg C.

The heat has given them and their teams a logistical nightmare in trying to keep cool and hydrated, not just on their bikes but even through the night in their hotel rooms.

Some, such as Australian veteran Luke Durbridge, have suggested starting the stages earlier in the day but Pogacar dismissed the effectiveness of such a move.

“It’s a big topic to discuss, but if I could have the power to change all, I would change all the calendars, and I would not race in July and August in the hot places and do a completely different calendar,” the Tour leader said.

“Yesterday there was one proposal that we could start at 10am, but for me at 10am it doesn’t change anything because then you finish at the big heat.

“For example, today we arrived and finished way cooler than at the start. So then you need to start at 8am or 9am, or even before.

“But I think the body can adapt to that as well, that you wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and do a stage at 8am.”

Among all the talk about how best to manage the extreme heat riders have to deal with, the ones complaining the least have been the cyclists.

Professional cycling teams now have quite sophisticated measures in place to manage the elevated temperatures.

“Our team, we managed pretty well with this heat. We did a super good job to cool down our systems and I’m pretty satisfied with how it went,” Pogacar added about his UAE Team Emirates XRG outfit.

Speaking before the start of the 154.6km ninth stage from Malemort to Ussel on July 12, Durbridge had suggested he was in favour of starting stages earlier in the day.

That was also a position supported by the CPA union which represents professional cyclists.

Durbridge, 35, first rode on the Tour in 2014 and he said it has been getting harder.

“I do remember certain days in the Tour de France where the roads have been melting,” he said.

“We’ve always had hot Tours de France, but this has been quite exceptional purely because it’s just been so consistent. From Day 1, we haven’t had one day that’s been on the road temperature probably under 35 degrees. But as a whole, our racing just gets a lot faster. There are no easy days.”

French rider Guillaume Martin, who finished eighth at the Tour in 2021, said such extreme weather conditions increase the time gaps on tough stages, such as the arduous slog through the Pyrenees on July 9.

“There is always tiredness after 10 days of racing. This time there’s perhaps a bigger difference between those riders who can put up with the heat and others who really suffer it,” he said. “And that might explain the huge time gaps that we saw on the stage to Gavarnie.” AFP