"It's not up to us to decide" - Ralph Denk admits extreme heat at Tour de France is a real worry to teams
Cycling
Practicing an outdoor sport, road cyclists are often at the mercy of weather. Sometimes it's freezing and raining buckets, other times it's scorching hot. The first week of 2026 Tour de France is definitely "enjoying" more of the latter, with temperatures as high as 40°C in today's finish city of Foix.
Of course, extreme weather protocol exists to protect athletes from health hazard-level conditions, but there was not a reason to intervene today, according to the race jury.
For teams, that means only one thing; accept, adjust and overcome. Cold water bottles and ice socks were at permanency with sports directors seated in team cars expecting an expenditure of more than 100 kilograms of ice in conditions like today. And the situation was not any different at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe.
"I think it's part of the game," Ralph Denk assessed calmly in an interview for Cyclism'Actu. "Here too, on the third stage, everyone knows it's hot. And what can you do? Yes, it's a race, so you can say what you want, it's not up to the teams to shorten or cancel every race, it's up to the organizers."
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Up to UCI to decide
After all, there's not a whole lot else the teams can do to fight the racing in very hot conditions - except strike. However neither cycling fans, organizers nor riders themselves deep down wish to halt racing.
Such a decision would have to come UCI themselves, Ralph Denk explains: "It's an open discussion, but it really needs to be discussed as a whole, not decided here, on the spur of the moment. If we want to do it like that, it's certainly the wrong approach. I can't decide anything. It's primarily up to the UCI and the organizers to do so. We are only involved."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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