Overview
- Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told departmental prefects on Friday that a new heat-response catalogue permits measures up to cancelling individual stages when health or operational conditions no longer allow safe race operations.
- The ministry’s options range from closing public areas and boosting medical and rescue crews to changing routes and, in exceptional cases, declaring a stage cancelled after consultation with the race organiser.
- Authority to act rests with local prefects who must coordinate decisions with the Amaury Sport Organisation and other stakeholders while the UCI High-Temperature Protocol uses Wet Bulb Globe Temperature thresholds to guide rider-focused safety steps.
- Race organisers are deploying fan protections such as water, hats, shade and extra public announcements and are monitoring weather closely to adjust logistics without immediate stage cancellations.
- The step responds to a late June heatwave that produced record national temperatures and heavy preliminary excess deaths and could mark an unprecedented disruption to the Tour if local services are judged at risk.