The rise of temperatures worldwide due to global warning could be a real risk for Tour de France in the future, a competition that “has been lucky” to avoid the more and more common heat waves in France, says an international study published last Tuesday by Scientific Reports, made by the French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) in collaboration with institutions in London or Barcelona.
As shared by EFE, the study warns that global warming and the progressive increase in temperatures pose a growing threat to the holding of summer sporting events in Europe, such as the more popular cycling race in the world.
The study specifically looked at the last fifty editions of the Tour de France (between 1974 and 2023) and found an increased risk, specially in the last decade, of holding races under extreme heat, although they point that the race “has been lucky” to avoid the situations of maximum risks… at least so far.
“In a way, we can say it’s an extremely fortunate race, butwith heat waves breaking records with increasing frequency, it’s only a matter of time before the Tour encounters a day of extreme heat stress that will test existing safety protocols” warned Ivana Cvijanovic, IRD researcher and lead author of the study.
With temperatures in cities like Toulouse, Pau or Bordeaux reaching between 28.8ºC and 30.1ºC in the last few years, and even Paris reaching 28.8ºC in 2019, there is a risk that one of these heat waves will coincide with a cycling stage, and they fear that the current anti-heat protocols would not be enough.
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