The Tour of Spain continues its path and in recent days a strong controversy has erupted between runners and sports directors, who have referred to the strong heat wave that hit the competition.
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In recent years, the same topic has always been discussed, and there have even been voices suggesting that a possible change of dates be considered so that this natural phenomenon does not cause so many sporting casualties.
Since the Vuelta changed its date in 1995, when it went from being held between April and May to September, the public has not been as convinced of its success.
Big problem
The idea was to schedule the race a few days before the World Cycling Championships so that the top names could prepare for the event. This week the heat has been impressive and temperatures have reached 40 degrees Celsius.
Richard Carapaz (EF) said that the heat played a trick on him and that is why he lost time to Primoz Roglic.
“It was very hot and it affected me a lot in the end. 40 degrees was too much. I ran out of water. It was very hot and I entered a zone of despair,” he said.
Juan Manuel Garate, The sports director said: “The heat has been impressive and despite the fact that all measures have been taken to mitigate it, it has hit the runners very hard,” he said.
Wout van Aert, who was the leader of the race, was another who did not remain silent and warned that the race has changed due to the weather factor.
“It was a particularly hot day, I think everyone suffered because of that. The race was more controlled than everyone thought because of that,” he said.
The Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates), who trails Roglic in the general classification, was also mentioned.
“We survived by drinking lots of water and cooling down as much as we could. It was an incredibly hot day,” he said.
The date
In the official broadcast of the European television channel, Eurosports, the topic of debate was the possibility of the Vuelta changing its date.
Alberto Contador, former cyclist, raised that option, which is not very clear.
“It would be better to have the Giro on the dates of the Vuelta and the Vuelta on the dates of the Giro. There are times when summits like the Stelvio or the Gavia “They cannot be disputed because of the weather. Everyone will defend their own, that is clear. The Giro has a hard time having stars and the Vuelta always has a good rider,” he said.
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