Cool heads prevail
REECE HOMFRAY TOUR Down Under officials will meet with a teams and riders representative in Adelaide today to discuss contingency plans for the first two stages of next week’s race as they brace for 40C-plus temperatures.
They will consider shortening the stages, like in the past two years at Lyndoch and Victor Harbor, or starting a stage earlier, like last year’s Stage 4 from Norwood to Uraidla.
Organisers also cancelled the mass participation Challenge Tour ride because of the extreme heat last year.
A final decision will not be made until the technical meeting on Monday and announced to teams 24 hours before Stage 1 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 will reach 40C for Stage 2, covering 149km from Norwood to Angaston.
Teams representative Matt White, director of Australian WorldTour team MitcheltonScott and defending champion Daryl Impey, said he would support any changes to the first two stages but was not panicking about the forecast.
“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 180 or 190km in those sort of temperatures, there would certainly be more concern than 120 or 130km.
TDU race director Mike Turtur has planned for the heat and will 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.