Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse has said that the race’s much-anticipated visit to another of France’s great cycling landmarks, Mont Ventoux, will go ahead despite wildfires in the region.
With temperatures soaring across much of southern France in recent weeks, fire crews have been attending to major incidents in several French departments.
Stage three of the men’s Tour de France had to be re-routed due to ongoing fires in the Pyrénées-Orientales region and the final stage was shortened because emergency services needed to be deployed elsewhere.
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Fires continue to burn in the Vaucluse department near Ventoux and other parts of the Tour de France Femmes route as the race begins in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Earlier this week, the Vaucluse prefecture had put pressure on Tour organisers ASO to change the course of the race, saying in a statement: “At a time when forest areas are at a peak risk of fire, the prefecture has asked the organisers of the Tour to consider an alternative route.”
“Following a fire risk assessment on Tuesday 4 August, an alternative route will be implemented should the wildfire risk be considered extreme.”
However, speaking to several media publications on Friday, including Cyclingnews, Rousse was confident that Mont Ventoux would remain on the parcours.
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“We’ve been speaking with the prefecture since April, we’ve had a constant relationship with them, and we will adapt like the men’s Tour did,” Rousse said.
“We’re just a bike race, and we have to work within the every day, real life, and that will always come first over considerations for the race.”
”What I can say is that the climb to Mont Ventoux will definitely go ahead, but there are several options in front of us and we will remain at the service of law enforcement and the state, and we will do what they tell us to do,” she added.
While the Giant of Provence looks set to remain in the route, it is possible that the road taken to arrive at its foot will need to be changed.
Ventoux is set to be tackled as the climax to the Tour’s seventh stage on Friday, August 7, and has been billed as the race’s queen stage.
Before heading up the legendary ascent, a first in Tour de France Femmes history, the riders will set off from La Voulte-Sur-Rhône, taking in three categorised climbs through the Drôme and Vaucluse departments.
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