Tadej Pogacar called for radical change to the professional racing calendar after another day of stifling temperatures, as Mathieu van der Poel won the shortened ninth stage of the Tour de France from Malemort to Ussel, with Tom Pidcock finishing third.
“If I had the power I would change all the calendar and not race in July and August in hot places,” Pogacar said. “I’d do a completely different calendar, but it’s not something I can do.”
The Slovenian rider, a four-time Tour de France winner, said: “Maybe the next step is to start the stages earlier. Yesterday there was a proposal to start at 10, but it doesn’t change anything because then you finish in the heat.
“You need to start at eight or nine, or even before. It’s a little bit shit, but I think the body can adapt to waking up at five o’clock in the morning and doing a stage at eight. But I think I’ve said enough.”
The undulating stage to Ussel, with three steep climbs in the final 80 kilometres and including almost 2,700 metres of altitude gain, may have been shortened because of the heatwave but the ferocious pace and unrelenting contours had dramatic repercussions for some in the peloton.
Despite having what he described as a “manageable” saddle sore, Pidcock had his best day in the Tour to date, as one of the key animators of a 15-rider breakaway that also included the former world road race champion Van der Poel, of Alpecin-PremierTech.
“I was going super well today,” Pidcock, racing for Pinarello-Q36.5, said. “I had really good legs and was feeling really strong. If I compare it to the last time I was in a breakaway at the Tour de France, on the gravel stage to Troyes two years ago, today I was really in the game.
“It just shows that my level is higher, but my gears stopped working, and I was out the back of the group on the last climb. But when I got to the sprint I was hopeless.
“So it’s a shame, but I don’t think I would have come around Mathieu anyway. He’s very hard to beat in those situations, but at least I was there, sprinting for the win.”
The Tour always has hot days, but in sustained heatwaves as draining as this there is only so much an ice vest, ice socks and cold drinks can do.
Beyond the broiling finish line in Ussel, many riders, still in full kit and racing shoes, dropped their bikes to the road and plunged into ice baths in waiting team vans.
Paddling pools and tin baths are even being used by some teams, in a desperate effort to reduce rider core temperatures as soon as possible after racing.
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At Paul Seixas’s Decathlon CMACGM team, a portable cryotherapy unit to cool the riders after each stage is travelling with the team, speeding recovery by lowering body temperature and promoting sleep.
“I’ve only done it once,” Tiesj Benoot, teammate to Seixas, said. “You sit in a capsule at minus 120 degrees for about three minutes. It’s even more intense than an ice bath.”
But the Professional Cyclists Association was among those to argue that more still needed to be done to protect rider wellbeing. “This once again highlights the need to fully implement the extreme weather conditions protocol,” the CPA said of yet another searingly hot afternoon.
Echoing the comments of Pogacar, the CPA added that “summer race start times must evolve in order to protect athlete health” and called for ”discussions to be held with all stakeholders” during the winter to find a solution before the summer of 2027.
Benoot was among those who felt that shortening the stage to Ussel did not make much difference to the peloton. “It’s 40 minutes less racing, but we’ve already been riding in this same heat for eight days,” Benoot said. “I get the feeling ASO wants to make a statement, but other measures would benefit us more.”
The Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, said that an earlier start to the stage to Ussel would not have been possible, for logistical reasons. “Waking the riders up at 5am is pretty difficult, even if that’s already happening, for anti-doping controls,” he said.
The rest day on Monday will offer some respite from racing in the heat but with temperatures predicted to stay in the high thirties into the middle of next week, it will be of little comfort to those who are already suffering.
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