"Everyone agrees that Vingegaard handles the heat better than Pogacar" - Contador believes weather could impact Tour de France

With no mountain drama or bunch sprint chaos in the flat weekend stages of the 2025 Tour de France, the star of the show has been the oppressive heat. And if the racing wasn’t especially animated, the behind-the-scenes logistics certainly were, particularly when it came to hydration.

On Eurosport’s La Montonera, Laura Messeguer broke down the staggering numbers behind keeping riders cool and functional under the sun, “20 jerry cans per rider, 150 per team, between 1300 and 1500 calories per hour, 2% of body weight.”

Alberto Contador unpacked those numbers further, pointing to the brutal effect high temperatures can have on performance. “On a hot day a rider who is not properly cooled can have their performance affected by up to 15% of their power, that's a real barbarity,” he said. “It can make you fall behind. The water bottles are about 5 per hour, 1 and a half or 2 drunk between water and food and another 3 to pour them over you.”

Contador, who twice won the Tour, underlined how teams now use meticulous post-stage analysis to monitor riders' hydration. “It is very important to maintain the body temperature well... In fact, once the runners finish the stage, in the bus, they have the scales, they are weighed before and after the stage to see the level of dehydration they have and thus know what they have to drink to be in the optimal moment of hydration.”

The attention to heat isn’t just about recovery, it’s also part of long-term planning for what’s ahead. Eurosport commentator Juan Clavijo, working the Tour’s opening stages, explained that the teams have already shifted focus toward Monday’s demanding stage in the Massif Central.

“There have been a lot of comments from the cars to the riders reminding them to hydrate, not to forget,” Clavijo said. “And they have referred a lot to Monday's stage... It's a very demanding day with more than 4,000 meters of elevation gain and no rest.”

Contador closed the segment by noting that while adaptation to heat or cold is part of training, some riders are simply built for one or the other. “I think there are riders who do well in the cold and others who do well in the heat... There are always cyclists who do well in the heat. I've seen Pogacar also do well in the heat, but everyone agrees that Vingegaard handles the heat better than Pogacar.”