Overview
- The Scientific Reports paper reconstructing weather for 12 French locales from 1974 to 2023 finds a sustained rise in July heat-stress risk for the Tour.
- Authors report the race has repeatedly just missed peak heat, warning that dangerous overlaps with severe heatwaves are increasingly likely.
- Paris exceeded the study’s high-heat threshold five times in July since 1974, with four occurrences since 2014.
- Lowland areas including Toulouse, Pau, Bordeaux, Nîmes, and Perpignan show more extreme-heat days, while mountain passes such as Tourmalet and Alpe d’Huez remained in lower risk bands and mornings offer safer windows.
- UCI guidance uses WBGT with values of 28 °C or higher as high risk, yet researchers call the threshold imperfect and urge refined rules and stronger heat operations, citing Vuelta stages near 40 °C that required about 200 water bottles and 80 kg of ice per team.