‘You’re never told not to talk about it, but you self-censor without even realising it’: Pro cyclist opens up about fossil fuel sponsorship amid a sweltering Tour de France

Peloton at the 2020 Tour de France with cars parked and helicopter above.

It has been a sweltering Tour. In a warming world, in which Europe is heating at twice the global average rate, it could hardly have been otherwise.

With water use restrictions in 92 of France’s 96 mainland departments, and the national news full of forest fires, dry rivers, depleted soil and disappearing aquifers, climate change is everyday conversation among ordinary Frenchmen and women, including, of course, Tour fans. Three stages have had to be reorganised, and even Tadej Pogačar, normally so softly spoken, has said, “If I had [the] power, I’d change the whole calendar. I would not race in July and in August.”