Scorching Heat Challenges Athletes at Tour Down Under
Conditions forecast for Saturday’s grueling Willunga Hill stage raise urgent questions about climate risk, athlete safety and the future for outdoor sports.
The first event of the UCI World Tour, South Australia’s Santos Tour Down Under faces severe heat this Saturday, with temperatures forecast to reach 42°C during the race’s most demanding stage at Willunga Hill.
The forecast conditions highlight the growing threat to athletes, spectators, and the long-term viability of outdoor sport in a warming climate.
David Morris, CEO of FrontRunners, says elite sport is increasingly being pushed into conditions that risk athlete safety, and stretch the limits of human performance.
“Everyone wants to see the world’s best cyclists put to the test, and the Tour’s organisers are delivering an incredibly challenging stage with three climbs of Willunga Hill.” Morris said. “But climate change amplifies that challenge. Extreme heat is no longer an occasional anomaly. It is now a defining factor in competition.”
Morris noted Adelaide is experiencing more frequent and intense heat extremes than in previous decades, increasing the likelihood the Tour will be held in dangerous conditions.
“Days over 40 degrees have risen dramatically over the past half century,” he said. “It’s now more likely that stages will be raced in extreme heat. Instead of conquering punishing slopes, these athletes are increasingly asked to endure punishing heat.”
Research from the University of Sydney’s Heat and Health Research Centre shows extreme heat dramatically impairs athletic performance and poses serious health risks during endurance events.
Dr James Smallcombe, Research Fellow on the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change at the University of Sydney, said extreme heat can harm health in many different ways.
“From heat exhaustion — causing nausea, dizziness and muscle cramps — to heat stroke, a life-threatening medical emergency marked by disruption to the brain when the body can no longer control its temperature, the threat of extreme heat must be taken seriously,” said Dr Smallcombe.
Dr Harry Brown is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Heat and Health Research Centre. He says Saturday’s predicted temperatures add genuine risk to a punishing race stage.
“The steeper the climb, the harder the body has to work and the more heat it produces,” Dr Brown said. “On Willunga Hill, this increased metabolic heat production, combined with the high environmental heat stress predicted for Saturday, substantially increases the risk of exertional heat illness and supports the need for race modifications.”
FrontRunners’ David Morris said while race-day adaptation is essential, it does not address the underlying causes of escalating heat risk.
“No doubt the SA Government race organisers will make adjustments in response to Saturday’s heat,” Morris said. “But adaptations alone don’t solve the problem of an increasingly unsafe climate.”
Morris said sport also has a responsibility, and a vested interest, in showing leadership beyond adaptation. “The greatest thing sport can do for its own long-term viability is to provide leadership on climate action. That means reducing its own emissions, but also supporting system-level emissions reductions, and denying the fossil fuel industry a platform to promote business models that are fundamentally incompatible with a safe future for outdoor sport”.
Morris also highlighted the disconnect between striving to produce a safe, world-class event and promoting sponsors whose expansion plans are not aligned with a safe future for cycling.
“If we continue to manage risk only through race-day adaptations, while at the same time providing social licence to those making the problem worse, then events like the Tour Down Under will face mounting challenges in an Australian summer,” Morris said.
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