The peloton of 154 Tour de France riders took the start on Sunday after 1 p.m. of the 15th stage which promises to be the hottest of the event according to the weather forecast between Rodez and Carcassonne.
Three runners gave up continuing the race, two of them because of positive covid-19 tests carried out by their teams.
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo), who had become the mountain lieutenant of the Danish yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard, has suffered from his injuries since his fall in the first week.
The other two riders to leave the Tour are two stage winners. Australian Simon Clarke (Israel PT) won the 5th stage in Arenberg and Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education) did the same in Megève in the 10th stage.
Their double withdrawal brings the number of runners who left due to positive coronavirus tests to eight.
Very high temperatures, “between 33 and 39 degrees with peaks of up to 40 degrees possible in the Tarn department” are expected.
The regulation protocol on extreme weather conditions and the safety of runners has been activated for this day.
A working group made up of the head of the medical service Florence Pommerie and representatives of the riders, teams and organisers, which met before the start, decided to authorize refueling from the start of the stage until 10 kilometers from the finish.
The delivery of cans to spectators will also be authorized throughout the stage “respecting the safety conditions for the public and the runners” and the elimination period has been set at 20% regardless of the stage average.
The course of some 202 kilometers is dedicated to sprinters in this stage which crosses four departments of Occitanie (Aveyron, Tarn, Haute-Garonne, Aude) until the scheduled arrival around 5.51 p.m. (timetable calculated at an average speed of 44 km/h). ).
The road passes through the site of Ambialet, where the Tarn describes an astonishing loop (km 64), and the medieval town of Lautrec (km 105.6), capital of pink garlic before the intermediate sprint near the lake of Saint- Ferreol (Km 147).
“We made sure that this day smiled on the sprinters,” said race director Thierry Gouvenou. “The Montagne Noire is bypassed to avoid the passes. The final, rather on a descending false flat, was drawn to have side winds in the last ten kilometers”.
The candidates for the succession of the Briton Mark Cavendish, victorious last year for the 34th time in the Tour, will have a final straight line of 200 meters to explain themselves, between the Canal du Midi and the famous medieval city.
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