Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar has said that a complete overhaul of the cycling calendar is necessary and that he would put a stop to any racing at all in the summer months where there was excessive heat.
Speaking at the end of stage 9 at the Tour de France that was cut by 30 kilometres because of a red alert for high temperatures and after riders have been battling against a heat wave since Barcelona, Pogačar was asked about whether he would opt for regular earlier starts to races in order to beat the heat.
Rather than focus on a specific timetable or race, Pogačar initially responded by referring to the overall cycling calendar and the need to revise it from top to bottom due to changes in weather.
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The Slovenian immediately followed up by pointing out that he was not the person who could implement such radical changes to the cycling program. However, given his very high profile and status in the sport, not to mention his current position as Tour de France leader - and likely winner for a fifth time - in a year of extremely tough weather, his comments will hardly go unnoticed.
This year, with temperatures often soaring to the high thirties ever since the race left Barcelona nine days ago, the Tour and race commissaires have taken multiple measures to try and ease the effects of the heat, amongst them extending the distance in which riders can get bidons from team cars to all bar the first ten and last six kilometres of each stage.
However, Pogačar opted for a much broader perspective on cycling than just the Tour, even if it is clear that, were such a colossal upheaval in the sport ever to happen, the Tour would be amongst the prime candidates for new dates.
"In my opinion it's a big topic to discuss but if I had [the] power to change all, I would change the whole calendar," Pogačar told reporters after his fourth day in yellow in 2026.
"I would not race in July and in August in the hot place. That's something that we need to think through, and in the end it's not something I can do.
Pogačar said he had mixed feelings about shifting the times of stages, saying that was "maybe the next step."
"But yesterday there was one proposal to start at 10, but for me that does not change anything because then you'd finish in the big heat."
Some logistical elements of that were feasible, Pogačar felt, such as riders getting up much earlier than before. As he put it, "the body can adapt."
The whole area of calendar changes is one that Pogačar has discussed in the past, but more about the Giro d'Italia - often run off with problems because of cold weather causing mountain passes being blocked - and the Vuelta a España.
Last year, he told various media outlets, including Cyclingnews, that "It's always hard to combine the Tour and Vuelta. I always say if they switch with Giro, [the] Vuelta and Giro would be much better in terms of weather and riders going to each race."
Pogačar himself said that despite the challenges that the hot weather was causing his own team, "managed pretty well", using various strategies to keep themselves sufficiently hydrated and not suffering excessively. To judge by the way UAE were working so hard during stage 9 to keep the break under control, it was clear that the squad was certainly operating at full capacity.
"We do well to cool down systems, " Pogačar concluded, "we can be satisfied with how it all went."
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