Europe is in a dangerous, record-breaking period heat wave. The Met Office, the UK’s national weather agency, has issued a red extreme heat warning for the first time as temperatures in parts of England expected to exceed 104 degrees. On the other side of the English Channel, more than 42,000 acres of land was consumed in wildfires across France, Spain and Portugal. The heat wave has also affected this year’s Tour de France cycling race.
Tour de France is now on its third and final day off after 15 Days of tough race so far. The 2,000 mile race is here a racer broke his neck (but still finished the race) after colliding with an ignorant spectator, a stage was halted by climate protesters blocking the routeand a dramatic battle for the leader’s yellow jersey.
Racing on public roads naturally involves face many unpredictable variables – traditionally it’s part of make road racing fun. But riding on molten pavement is not what fans or riders ask for World’s hardest bike race. The pavement melts a clear danger to cyclists, especially on curves, at high speeds, where fall and major accidents will become almost certain. However, the solution that Tour organizers have pursued unpopular with many viewers.
Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the tour’s organizer, chose to spray plenty of water on the melt-prone parts of the route to keep the pavement cool and intact. The organization has allocated 10,000 liters (about 2,642 gallons) of water for sidewalk cooling purposes. In the light of the forest fire raging across Europe, ASO had to clarify that it did not intend to use all of its water to cool a single stage of the race, after erroneously assumed that all 10,000 liters will go towards cooling Leg 15, yesterday’s part of the Tour.
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Pierre-Yves Thouault, Deputy Director of the Tour, explains the situation to Le Parisien (link in French, translation below via automatic translation software):
The reality is completely different and concerns only the safety of the riders. With the patrol truck passing directly in front of the caravan, we identified areas that would end up between 150 and 200 meters in what we call the bleed zones. That is In it, due to the heat, the tar melts and causes slippery on the road. There, they will be watered to cool down. Otherwise, riders can slip on them and get seriously injured.
Course manager André Bancala added:
So far, we have sprayed about 20 meters, which is about 50 liters of water. We were targeting 190 km as we were nearing the end. There are some bends that may have been damaged. But at maximum we will reach 350 liters. We have very little.
ASO has also stated that their total water usage to date has actually fallen compared to previous Tour de France runs – in part due to The opening three days of the 2022 Tour have taken place in Denmark, where the surrounding temperature is relatively cooler.
The current leader in the general classification is the Danish driver Jonas Vingegaard, who leading after Stage 11. There are only six legs left when the Adventure Tour enters the Pyrenees along the Franco-Spanish border before reaching Paris.
