Tour teams prioritise cooling and hydration as heat grips race

PARIS: Extreme heat has become a central concern at the Tour de France, with teams focusing heavily on keeping riders cool and hydrated as temperatures have stayed above 30C since the race started in Barcelona 10 days ago and have often climbed past 40C.

A range of cooling measures has been used during the race, including ice vests, ice socks and cooling mattresses, although riders are also frequently seen pouring water over their heads. EF Education-Easy Post head sports director Charly Wegelius said the challenge of managing heat had overtaken tactical concerns for many teams.

Speaking to AFP, Wegelius said teams faced major practical difficulties in securing ice and getting it to riders under race conditions. He said organisers and teams were trying to do what they could to help. He added that heat at the Tour was not new and that teams had worked on ways to manage it for years, including post-stage cooling methods and other techniques.

In one of his remarks to AFP, Wegelius said:

They say: the good generals talk about strategy and the great ones talk about logistics, right?

He also said:

It's a massive logistical challenge to try to keep the riders cool with all of the constraints there are, to get them ice, to get the ice, to get it through to them, to try and keep them cool.

EF Education have also been using specialised mattresses designed to regulate body temperature during sleep. Wegelius said cool water passes through thin tubes inside the mattresses, allowing them to help riders sleep without using hotel air conditioning. He said the system tracks body temperature, seeks an optimum level and then warms up to wake riders in the morning, while also reducing exposure to dry, air-conditioned air.

Cooling effort extends beyond the peloton

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said last week that race organisers ASO distribute 450kg of ice each day to teams. They have also widened the feeding window so that it now covers the entire stage apart from the first and last 10 kilometres.

French team Cofidis said it prepares 150 water bottles for a single stage, with more than half filled with ice. The team also readies 60kg of ice, much of it for ice socks that riders place down the back of their jerseys while racing. Cofidis said its eight-man squad had gone through 1,700 water bottles over the first nine stages.

Australian rider Luke Durbridge of Jayco AlUla said some riders in the peloton are effectively assigned to shuttle back and forth to team cars to collect bottles for teammates because of the demands created by the heat. He said this work can be decisive in helping general classification contenders and stage hopefuls avoid losing ground.

Durbridge told AFP:

Purely because it's such a demanding effort, you'll never see them do anything during the race rather than just do that.

He added:

But that's actually the difference between the GC (general classification) guy or the guy winning the stage.

French debutant Nicolas Breuillard, who finished eighth in Sunday’s ninth stage, said riders had largely accepted the conditions and prepared for them through heat training. He told AFP:

It's the same for everyone, all riders were prepared for this, we do a lot of training in heat.

The heat management effort has also extended to spectators. Prudhomme said ASO distributes 2.5 million bob hats and caps to fans along the route during the three-week race, as well as 550,000 drink cans and 400,000 litres of water.