Tadej Pogačar Warns Tour de France Heat Can Be ‘Dangerous’ Without Modern Cooling

Tadej Pogačar won stage 3 and reclaimed the yellow jersey Monday at the Tour de France, but he was more worried about the heat.

The top favorite warned that without modern cooling strategies, racing through ever more extreme heat is pushing racing to the limit.

“It is dangerous if you don’t keep your body temperature down,” Pogačar said.

Temperatures hit the mid-90s Fahrenheit and even more heat is expected in the coming days as the Tour returned to France.

Pogačar said without special preparation, racing four to six hours in extreme heat would make the three-week Tour even more grueling.

“It’s a logistic nightmare when it’s hot like today,” Pogačar said. “As a team, we really start to put a lot of effort into this.

“We have to bring so much water and ice to the riders. Three guys go back to the car to bring bottles and ice to keep cooling yourself.”

Heat training now at core of Tour prep

Teams like Pogačar’s UAE Emirates-XRG put managing heat right at the center of their Tour strategy.

The world No. 1 is spending more time preparing for specific heat training than ever before.

For Pogačar, the heat training already began months ago.

“We trained in the heat a lot this year,” he said, saying the team would ride to mimic race conditions during longer four to five hour training sessions with full team support providing water and keeping him hydrated.

At a recent training camp in southern Spain, some days he would ride in summer-like heat without the support of a team car to prepare for the extreme conditions he’ll be facing during this Tour.

“Some days without support, you do three hours riding in the heat and you don’t have support car, you think you are pretty shit because you overheat.”

Temperatures hit nearly 100F on the road Monday and even more heat is expected in the coming days in central France.

With forecasts calling for higher temperatures, extreme heat protocols could be rolled out during this Tour, including possible stage alterations.

“Five years ago it was totally different with what we have now,” Pogačar said. “I am happy with the way it is, because to race in this heat, it is dangerous if you don’t keep your body temperature down.”

No more racing into form

Pogačar’s preparation for the Tour is more than just bracing for the heat.

Long gone are the days of riding into form. Pogačar and all the top GC favorites are already at near-peak condition right from the first stage in Barcelona.

“Maybe this was 20 years ago that your shape will grow in the final week,” he said. “These days you need to come to the best shape possible at the start of the Tour and you go for it every day.”

Today’s racing is simply too intense and there’s no time to spin out the kilometers like the peloton did generations ago.

The challenge now is to hang on to the form for as long as possible.

“You try to recover, eat food like a robot, and just go with the flow, with what you bring here, it’s what we leave from here,” he said.

“Always you have good and bad days, but I doubt we we can grow shape,” Pogačar said. “If you’re racing for the GC, you need to come prepared to be at the best shape possible at the start.”

So far, it looks like Pogačar got it right.

Don’t miss a moment of the Tour de France. Get stage previews, insider recaps, and expert analysis from Velo delivered straight to your inbox with the Velo Tour Daily email newsletter.

Sign up for Velo’s Tour Daily Newsletter