Extreme heat now a factor in Tour de France route design, says Prudhomme

Speaking to L’Équipeon the eve of the Grand Départ, the Tour director said that he was in “constant contact” with the UCI and representatives of teams and riders regarding the soaring temperatures anticipated on this year’s race, which sets out from Barcelona on Saturday.

Temperatures of up to 44°C have been forecast for parts of Spain and France in the coming days. Pascal Chanteur, president of the French professional cyclists’ union, the UNCP, has called for the Tour to switch stage times from late afternoon to the morning due to the heat.

Prudhomme downplayed the impact of the temperatures on the riders themselves, noting that “some champions deliberately train in the extreme heat,” though he indicated that the Tour would abide by the terms of the UCI’s High Temperature Protocol.

“There are possibilities for opening up feeding zones more widely and for implementing longer time cut. We’ll deploying an additional motorbike with cold water and we’ve requested more ice,” Prudhomme said of the provisions in place.

“There are whole host of things to consider and we’re in constant contact with the UCI, rider representatives, and team representatives. Then there’s the formal aspect with the authorities, the prefects of the departments we’ll be crossing, with whom we’re in regular contact. Everything will depend on the temperatures.”

The high temperatures anticipated this July risk becoming the norm in the years to come, and Prudhomme said that it has become an important consideration when designing the route of the Tour. He pointed to the inclusion of the wooded climb of the Col du Haag on stage 14 as an indication of ASO’s thinking on the matter.

“Looking ahead, we’ve been exploring options in wooded areas for the past five or six years,” Prudhomme said. “The climb up Col du Haag is a prime example of this. It’s very tough, very uneven, and it’s in the shade. 

“But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any more Alpe d’Huez, Galibier, Tourmalet, or Ventoux tomorrow. Nevertheless, in our route planning, there’s this element that wasn’t there before.”

The 2026 Tour will see the peloton visit Alpe d’Huez on successive days on stage 19 and 20 ahead of the grand finale in Paris.

Prudhomme is of the belief, however, that Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard et al are just as likely to produce a spectacle away from the set-piece mountain stages.

“There was a time when we wondered what kind of obstacles we needed to include to trigger an attack from the favourite, and I remember hearing a champion say, ‘Mont Ventoux isn’t hard enough,’” Prudhomme said.

“Now we’ve gone back to the completely opposite approach. A climb that might seem innocuous can turn into a fireworks display. With Pogacar, the Suc au May on the Corrèze stage is further from the finish than it was the first time in 2020, but he’s capable of launching an attack, and if he does, Seixas, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel might be right behind him.”