Cycling: Tour Down Under braces for heatwave

Tour Down Under officials will meet with a teams and riders representative as they brace for a 42C heatwave.

Tour Down Under director Mike Turter has prepared for the heatwave

Tour Down Under officials will meet rider and team representatives in Adelaide today to discuss contingency plans for the first two stages of next week’s race as they brace for a 42C heatwave.

They will consider shortening the stages — like the past two years in Lyndoch and Victor Harbor — or starting a stage earlier as they did with last year’s Stage 4 from Norwood to Uraidla.

Organisers were also forced to cancel the mass participation Challenge Tour ride last year due to extreme heat.

A final decision will not be made until the technical meeting on Monday and announced to teams 24 hours before Stage 1 starts in North Adelaide on Tuesday.

The bureau is predicting 41C for Stage 1, which is 132.4km from North Adelaide to Port Adelaide and includes two laps of a circuit around Paracombe mid-race.

The mercury is then set to rise again to 42C for Stage 2, which is 149km from Norwood to Angaston in a point-to-point race.

Teams representative Matt White, who is the director of Australian WorldTour team Mitchelton-Scott, which includes defending champion Daryl Impey, said he would support any changes to the first two stages but wasn’t panicking about the forecast heat.

“I will talk to the other sports directors before the briefing tomorrow, but I know there are contingency plans in place,” White said.

“The differences between racing in Australia and Europe are this is the first time people are exposed to it (heat) for the season, which is a bit of a shock, and with the Australian sun the UV is double the strength here.

“The first week of the Vuelta a Espana last year was raced in the same temperatures as we’re going to race in next week and we started later in the day and they were longer stages.

“But riders are a bit more used to the conditions by August than they are in January.

“If we were doing 180km or 190km in those sort of temperatures there would certainly be more concern than 120 or 130km.

“If the temperatures are extreme and they shorten or move the stages forward it will help, but I don’t expect any stages to be cancelled, the only reason they would be is if it comes under catastrophic fire danger conditions.

“We’ll meet about it more seriously on Monday and I would prefer they make a decision and stick to it, because people don’t like decisions made on the run.”

Race director Mike Turtur said he would take rider and team feedback on board before making a final decision.

“We will meet with riders and team representatives over the weekend and once we get a definitive final forecast from the bureau, we will sit down with the commissaires on Monday to deal with the situation,” Turtur said.

“We’ve planned for it. The heat policy that governs the sport doesn’t stop the race, it’s just up to riders, teams and officials as to how to manage the situation. It’s a commonsense approach.”

White spent yesterday with his riders scouting the finish of Stage 3 in Uraidla, which involves seven laps of a circuit around Summertown, Piccadilly and Carey Gully. The temperature is expected to have dropped to 30C by then.

“We’ve got a good team here, we’re not going to divulge too much of our tactics but Daryl is the defending champion and he deserves our support to try to go back-to-back.”