Tour Femmes heat turned stage 3 into a survival test Monday, with riders reaching Poligny visibly drained.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift has opened under oppressive conditions. The third stage became the hottest so far by a wide margin.
Riders crossed the line with dried white salt marks on shorts and jerseys. Many emptied bottles immediately after stopping.
EF-Oatly rider Noemi Rüegg’s Wahoo showed a maximum temperature of 102 degrees during the stage.
Sweat covered riders’ legs in the finish area. Many looked dazed after one of the hottest stages in the race’s history.
Tour Femmes heat overwhelms preparation
Teams had prepared for high temperatures with heat training, ice gels, cold bottles and ice socks.
Even so, several contenders found their bodies unable to match the intensity under sustained heat.
Kristen Faulkner, Rüegg’s EF-Oatly teammate and an Olympic champion, lost contact with the lead group around 45 kilometers from the finish.
Faulkner said afterward she had spent too much energy and felt dehydrated. She said she had “blown up” in the heat despite using ice and fluids.
She also noted a difference between training in hot conditions and racing at Tour intensity.
Faulkner said elevated core temperature over such a long period felt very different from pre-race altitude training in hot weather.
Lotte Kopecky also felt the heat during her long solo pursuit of stage winner Sigrid Haugset.
The former world champion reduced the gap to 10 seconds at one point. But she could not close it.
Kopecky said her legs began to cramp when she pushed hard. She then had to let Haugset go.
She explained that riding in a bunch allowed some recovery. A long solo effort made cooling down far harder.
Kopecky said she tried to pour as many bottles over herself as possible.
Wiebes loses yellow after climb, heat and bee sting
Before the start, Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime had a realistic chance of keeping yellow in Poligny.
That plan collapsed early on the first-category Col de la Faucille.
Wiebes was dropped during the opening hour and never returned to the main group.
She said the heat affected her, though she also lacked her best legs. She struggled when rivals attacked on the climbs.
Her day became more complicated when a bee stung her leg while racing through the Jura.
The sting required more ice, on a day when cooling supplies already ran low.
Wiebes said she lost count of the water and ice bags her team used. She said she had already gone through two bottles and ice in the first hour.
At one point, SD Worx-Protime even ran out of water in the second team car.
Ice baths and exhaustion at the finish
The race has averaged 87 degrees so far. Repeated days in extreme heat have started to affect leading riders.
Franzi Koch of FDJ United-Suez said her stage felt unexpectedly hard.
The Paris-Roubaix winner told German broadcaster ARD her heart rate was very high and she had no power in her legs.
Koch said her team strongly suspected the heat caused those sensations.
Behind the finish, the team bus zone filled with riders seeking quick cooling.
Many stepped into ice baths with clear relief after the line.
Lidl-Trek rider Riejanne Markus was seen leaving her ice bath and heading to the bus with a yellow rubber duckie.
Demi Vollering, who had crashed, emerged from a team truck wrapped in a towel near her dog and partner.
Riders also praised Haugset for her strength and bold attack during the final part of the stage.
Even the stage winner and new race leader nearly faded in the conditions.
Haugset said she felt “so dizzy” at the finish. She said she could not lift her arms from the bike to celebrate.
Her heat preparation had an unusual edge. She had trained in a Girona apartment without air conditioning.
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