2023-07-07 10:24:00
It’s an image that followers were quick to note. Since the start of the Tour de France in Bilbao, Tadej Pogacar has a new habit: that of immersing himself as soon as the stage is over in a cold bath specially provided for him in the trunk of a van in the colors of his UAE team. The obvious goal: to lower your body temperature and promote recovery. With global warming also threatening the Tour de France, is this practice destined to become more democratic?
Without being quite lenient, the weather has not yet reached the extremes of 2022 when the Tour de France saw the mercury flirt with 45 degrees, especially on the 15th stage between Rodez and Carcassonne. This had forced the organizers to take measures, in particular that of cooling the roadway to reduce the temperature felt by the peloton. With global warming now well underway, teams are trying to adapt their riders’ bodies.
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“Thermo-training room”, hot bath and sauna
The hotter it is, the harder it is to pedal. The evidence was cruelly reminded to all of the last French championships that only 23 of the 130 riders at the start finished. In question, the double action of a difficult course and very, very high temperatures. This is why adapting to standards that are sure to rise in the years to come has become an obligation for any rider in the Tour de France, the most difficult race in the world contested in the heart of the French summer.
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“By having the right techniques, we will teach the body to better tolerate heat, says Frédéric Grappe, performance director of Groupama-FDJ. We can do it on the ground when the environment allows it (like at Teide on the island of Tenerife where many teams go for training in May, editor’s note) or in a hot room, the ‘thermo-training room’, in which you can adjust the temperature”. So much for the “active” part.
At rest, immersing yourself in a hot bath following exercise or multiplying sauna sessions also accustoms the body to aggressive temperatures. This is the path chosen by the Groupama-FDJs, including David Gaudu and Valentin Madouas, who have installed one at home, or Thibaut Pinot from 2022. All these techniques tend to activate the body’s reactions more quickly under high heat to lower the internal temperature.
Smart capsules
“A few years ago, our riders ingested capsules that allowed us to measure their temperature in real time, informs Jacky Maillot, doctor for Groupama-FDJ. We noticed that as soon as we approached 40 degrees, the body would go to safety and the brain would send a message to the muscles: stop the effort.”
David Gaudu and Romain Bardet on arrival in Cauterets.
Credit: Getty Images
Preparing well for the heat can help, but in racing, managing your effort is vital. “In ‘France’, our strategy was to smooth out the effort as much as possible, to increase the intensity as little as possible. Other runners paid for the high intensities”, recalls Frédéric Grappe. In Cassel, the role of the latter was to pass water and especially ice cubes to the runners to cool them down. On the Tour de France 2022, the teams started the hottest stages with nearly 60 kilos of ice on board.
How far can we adapt? How far will the old techniques make it possible to curb the effects of heat on the body? Controlling dehydration is obviously key. From the first signs of this, the time during which a runner can evolve at his best level in a pass can decrease by 20%. At the time of cycling to the millimeter, this makes a huge difference… Increasingly rigorous, the different strategies will one day reach their limits without anyone really knowing when. Everything will depend on global warming and its speed.
We will have to ask ourselves the question but we must not wait until we are in these environments
What if this forced us to rethink the Tour de France? The biggest event in the world, contested at a crazy pace and with the best riders in the peloton, this one combines intensity and hot temperature, a potentially dangerous cocktail for health… and the spectacle.
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“There will certainly be a reflection to be had at the medical level, admits Jacky Maillot. We should perhaps move the Tour to another month but it will be very, very complicated or have… less difficulty. An opinion shared by his colleague at Groupama-FDJ, Frédéric Grappe: “The hotter it gets, the less racing you will have. We too often forget that they are humans, there are protective mechanisms in the body. We expect too much, they do what they can.” The higher the mercury rises, the sooner the limits will logically be reached and the more attention will have to be paid to them.
So, is the Tour de France under the threat of global warming? Always cluster: “I think we will have to ask ourselves the question but we must not wait until we are in these environments. We will have to study because we will not have to do anything. we’re ready to act because otherwise it won’t look like much. Maybe we’ll have to postpone some races and maybe say to ourselves that some days we won’t be racing.” Difficult to imagine today and yet, this future is undoubtedly to be envisaged.
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