Matteo Trentin sounds alarm over Tour heat: ‘It’s not responsible’

On a day marked by soaring temperatures and reports of fires in the surrounding area, the heat was once again the dominant topic inside the Tour de France peloton. 

For Matteo Trentin, the question is no longer whether summer racing is hot. It is whether cycling is prepared for a changing climate that is already affecting the race.

“It’s always difficult to judge,” the Tudor rider said to WielerFlits when asked whether it was safe to race. “For the heat, of course, I think we really need to sit at the table and find out what we’re going to do in the future, because it’s for sure not healthy. I don’t know if it’s safe, but it’s not healthy at all.”

Trentin, one of the most experienced riders in the peloton, said the nature of the heat has changed. The problem, he argued, is not just the temperature during the stage, but the absence of recovery when the day ends.

“It has always been hot, but these latest heatwaves are very different,” he said. “It doesn’t get cool in the night anymore. Climate change is here. It’s not going to be next year. It’s now.”

His comments come amid growing discussion over how Tour organisers should respond to extreme weather. Ahead of the race, ASO technical director Thierry Gouvenou acknowledged that rising temperatures were a major concern.

“This is something that concerns us greatly,” Gouvenou told L’Équipe, after organisers had already experienced difficult periods of heat in May and June.

For the first time in its long history, the Tour is being forced to seriously confront the possibility that heat could require more than extra water, ice and cooling measures. Until now, no Tour stage has ever been cancelled specifically because of high temperatures, but this year’s conditions have intensified the debate.

One idea raised by riders’ representatives is to move stages much earlier in the day. Pascal Chanteur, president of the French professional cyclists’ union, has suggested starts around 9am, with finishes early in the afternoon, before temperatures reach their peak.

Trentin believes that kind of conversation can no longer be delayed.

“Right now, it is very difficult to change any plan that was already prepared for months,” he said. “But for the future, for sure, we need to sit at the table and start to think about it. Maybe starting at 12 under the sun is not a smart idea.”

Asked whether it was responsible to race in such conditions, Trentin was blunt.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “If I was just a normal guy, I wouldn’t go out at this time of day.”

He compared the riders’ situation to outdoor workers in countries such as Italy and France, where labour rules can restrict work in extreme heat.

“People who work in construction or agriculture, they cannot work,” Trentin said. “And we are working. Technically, it’s nice on the bike, but it’s a job for us.”

Tour director Christian Prudhomme has previously stressed that major schedule changes are not simple. The race depends on thousands of police officers, firefighters and gendarmes, as well as road closures, local authorities, broadcasters and a huge moving infrastructure. Those systems are planned months in advance.

“You can cut 15 kilometres or start half an hour earlier,” Prudhomme told AFP. “But changes can only be made at the margins.”

That is exactly the issue Trentin wants the sport to address before the next crisis arrives. Once a stage is underway, he said, it becomes extremely difficult to define a clear point at which racing should stop.

“You need a marker,” he said. “Being on the bike and not being stationary in a single place, here it is 40 degrees, maybe there it is 38. So what is going to be the marker?”

For Trentin, the solution is not another informal discussion that disappears once temperatures drop.

“That’s why we need to sit at the table and seriously talk about it,” he said. “Not randomly talking and then deciding at the next meeting, then next month, and then another year passes. Then we are still here next year talking about the same thing.”