“I wondered how we were going to finish”: from the caravan to the peloton, heat stroke on the Tour de France

“Horrible…” Romain Bardet admits that he didn’t enjoy the day’s stage between Rodez and Carcassonne. A race in the sun under the heat wave, with 38 degrees in the shade at the finish – much more felt on the bitumen. For the French DSM climber as for the 153 other riders at the start on Sunday morning in Aveyron, this stifling race under the dodger was nothing but a long ordeal. Even the winner of the day in the sprint, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck), overjoyed at a first success on the Grande Boucle, recognized the “crazy circumstances” of this scorching stage. “Fortunately my team did the work to constantly refresh me,” admits the Belgian.