From Sines to Loulé, there are more than 190 kilometers that will be covered in the third stage of the 84th Tour of Portugal, in a journey in which the main difficulty is the high temperatures that are felt.
Speaking to TSFthe director of the Tour, Joaquim Gomes, reveals that the greatest adversity of this edition has been, precisely, the heat.
“The main factor of fatigue in the Tour of Portugal is precisely caused by the enormous dehydration and, many times, when the temperature rises for many days -or at least for many hours of the stages- above 35 °C. The body does not have the capacity to assimilate so much water and, many times, it can cause digestive disorders, which is even worse. Most cyclists have enormous experience, so in this game of glory that is the Tour of Portugal, the issue of high temperatures and all that. The care that has to do with avoiding dehydration is completely essential, but all of them and their sports directors know exactly what they have to do ”, he explains.
also heard by TSFJosé Azevedo, EFAPEL’s sports director, says that short periods of time are worse than heat.
“We can have days with 30 °C and the next day we can have 15 °C or rain. We don’t have summer and winter months like 15 or 20 years ago, ”he says, recalling that when he ran he even caught temperatures around 40ºC.
Hydration and body temperature of athletes are two of the concerns of the sports director. During the Tour, the cooling of body temperature, explains José Azevedo, is done through “ice cube bags” that are placed behind the cyclists’ necks.
The former cyclist assures that heat and cold are part of this sport and therefore he does not see the need to change the time or the calendar of the Tour of Portugal.
“Our sports season runs from February to the end of September. We are both hot and cold. There is no other way to be able to practice this sport than this, we cannot change the climate ”, he adds.
Source: TSF
