Heat no hassle for BMC Racing in the lead-up to Santos Tour Down Under

BMC Racing has not fought off Adelaide's fierce heatwave it the build-up to the Tour Down Under, it has embraced it.

Champion Cadel Evans, right, at Adelaide Airport with Tour Down Under director Mike Turter. Picture: Morne de Klerk.

BMC Racing have not fought off Adelaide's fierce heatwave they have embraced it.

Assistant directeur sportif Fabio Baldato believes all of BMC Racing's seven riders including 2011 Tour de France champion Cadel Evans comfortably dealt with the five days of searing heat which made Adelaide the hottest city on earth on Thursday.

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Baldato said the team was told to combat the inferno with "feeling' on their bikes.

"The first rule of all this heat is for the riders to understand their bodies they have to listen to their bodies with ''feeling,'' Baldato said.

"The have to know where the limits are above all.

"They have to drink a lot, increase salt intake and eat fruit and vegetables the stuff that the riders know all too well.

"The riders have coped very well and in the end we've kept to our programs."

Baldato said any feelings of heat stress were dealt with immediately but there was no definitive factors - the amount of fluids a rider should intake- during the heatwave.

But recovering from the searing conditions was the most important factor before stage racing starts on Tuesday.

"When we arrived (in Adelaide nine days ago) we adapted well to the conditions (before the heatwave),'' Baldato said.

"The first real hot day earlier this week we went really well.

"We had our programs and we had our recovery.

"But then when we had training where we had work to do (with regards to intense training) we left early in the morning at about seven.

"We raced and trained three hours and then we also trained for four hours."

BMC Racing during the second hottest day of the heatwave where temperatures reached 44.2C on Thursday completed about 200km as the team did its reconnaissance mission at Willunga - the scene of the Tour's stage 5 next Saturday - before having lunch at Victor Harbor.

The team returned to Adelaide in the air conditioned comfort of motor transport.

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After two recovery rides, on Tuesday - where the temperatures peaked at 45.1C - and Wednesday, Baldato said the team was confident of attacking Willunga without worrying about heat fatigue.

"Thursday it was the hottest day for us in terms of training,'' Baldato said.

"We reduced the day to minimum work and the boys did only a couple of hard training runs, the programmed ones and then we also had a good wind behind us so the intensity not too bad."

Baldato says he expects his team to work a little harder on Saturday given the heatwave should be over with temperatures expected to peak at 28C with a chance of an isolated shower.

Baldato says the team will use Sunday's People's Choice Classic, the preview to the stage race, as an event where the team can bond during race conditions.

"We'll make the most of the fresher weather,'' Baldato said.

"We have the criterium to race on Sunday night and for us this race will be more for refining the team.

"We haven't got a lead-out train to finish off with a sprinter but we'll give it our all.

"It's an occasion where the boys can stay together and find each other during the race and look after Cadel.

"It's an occasion to have a run in.

"Our objective is to start the race from Tuesday and Cadel is primed, he's ready."