Tour de France stage 3 at risk due to wildfires in the Pyrenees

Stage 3 of the Tour de France is at risk of cancellation due to wildfires in the French Pyrenees that have forced road closures and the evacuation of local residents over the weekend.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales department said that a decision would be taken by the end of the day.

“We’re working on this issue this afternoon. We should be able to reach a decision by the end of the day,” Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said, according to AFP.

The wildfire in question broke out on Saturday evening. It is located outside the village of Trevillach, some 70km from the finish of stage 3 at Les Angles, and it has already spread over an area of 1,500 hectares across the mountainside. 700 firefighters have been deployed to try to curb the wildfire.

Trevillach is not on the route of stage 3, which brings the race from Spain into France, but it is close to the off-course route between the start and finish that will be followed by team buses and other elements of the Tour convoy.

Local authorities must weigh up the impact of the Tour’s arrival in the area on the emergency response to the wildfire. The Pyrénées-Orientales department has been subject to an orange alert for extreme heat since Saturday, and the local government said that the fire had intensified due to the wind conditions in the area.

“Firefighting efforts are concentrated in Ille-sur-Têt, Rodès, and Bouleternère to prevent the fire from reaching the Aspres mountain range,” read a statement from the prefecture. 

The Tour organisation has yet to comment publicly on the possibility that stage 3 could be cancelled, though technical director Thierry Gouvenou acknowledged last week that the extreme heat forecast for July was a “major concern” for the race.