Tour de France heat measures - UCI and organisors continue and extend high temperatures protocol as sweltering peloton battle intense weather
CyclingWednesday, 08 July 2026 at 12:44
The Tour de France and UCI are doing their best to beat the heat as La Grand Boucle continues through exceptionally high temperatures. With heat consistently reaching over 35 degrees celsius, riders and teams are battling to stay cool.
With a brutal Grand Depart raced aggressively under temperatures as high as 40 degrees at some points, organisers introduced measures to ensure riders can remain hydrated as the Tour comes to the boil.
With stages beginning in the early afternoon, temperatures across France are already soaring by the time the flag is waived to begin stages, leading to organisers ASO introducing measures in stage 4.
Organisers changed the feeding rules for stage 4 by allowing teams to hand out musettes in areas that were originally reserved for bottles only. The use of musettes then allows riders to take multiple bottles in one swoop, thus giving them a better chance of staying hydrated, and receiving ice and food to continue riding.\
Additional heat measures on stage 5
For stage 5, those measures will remain in place. Additionally, the UCI and ASO have made the decision to give teams wider access to supply riders with bottles along the route.
Staff members will be permitted to feed their riders from ten kilometers into the race until ten kilometers to go, meaning riders can retrieve sustenance for the majority of racing on Wednesday.
Read also
For example, feeding is often reserved for specific sections of racing in normal circumstances. With high temperatures expected to stay until at least Sunday, it seems that these rules are likely to remain over the coming stages.
Wednesday's stage 5 is unlikely to be an attacking feast for the breakaway, however. Instead, sprint teams are likely to control in hopes of it coming to a bunch sprint. Five days into the Tour, favourites such as Tim Merlier, Jasper Merlier and Olav Kooij have had to bide their time before opening the taps on a bunch sprint.
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- That happens in 'democracies' all over the world.Hills3308-07-2026
- My point standsbruins3008-07-2026
- Not a lot of people know that.Cyclingsbestfan08-07-2026
- What a great stage to watch. Always good to see the breakaway win.
Andrew08-07-2026 - Would normally agree with you but after all of the protests at the tour last year i realised that the two are hard to separate.Andrew08-07-2026
- Just because Trump is being a wally doesn’t mean that the USA is not a democracy does it? Uae on the other hand …. Saudi Arabia is supporting the war against the Houthi Shias in Yemen both financially and militarily, a war in which over 250,000 Yemenis have died and which many organisations class as a genocide. Bahrain continues its persecution of its Shia minority which falls under the UN definition of genocide as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group" (genocide doesn't, contrary to popular understanding, solely refer to physically killing a group of people, it can also refer to attempts to abolish a people by circumscribing their language, religion, culture etc). UAE has been accused, with good evidence, of funding the RSF in Sudan, a group which has committed massacres and numerous war crimes against the Masalit people of West Darfur, classed by many organisations as a genocide (130,000+ dead).Andrew08-07-2026
- How can they vote if it isn’t a democracy?Andrew08-07-2026
- i understand why he is angry but then they are expert commentators not journalists, they comment on existing issues based on what they have experienced not journalism. His performance is fact and they are commenting on that factabstractengineer08-07-2026
- LOL ! There it is. Lots of money paid to a guy who can't even win stages in the past year or two ! The heck with GC ambitions which is what Jayco brought him to the team for.frieders308-07-2026
- Remco is such a whiny lil' boy !frieders308-07-2026
Loading
Write a comment