As the early season round of southern hemisphere and desert racing comes to a close, the WorldTour peloton will soon be lining up to race in all sorts of volatile conditions in Belgium, France and northern Italy, for both one-day and stage races.
But after the extreme weather protocol (EWP) impacted so dramatically on the Dubai Tour last week, when desert sandstorms led to the cancellation of stage 4, the number of stages either curtailed or cancelled is steadily growing. From Mont Brouilly to Mont Ventoux, the Dubai Tour to Tirreno-Adriatico, the EWP is now shaping race results, and in some cases, even careers.
In 2016, pivotal finales in France’s two biggest stage races, Paris-Nice and the Tour, were cancelled due to the weather. While the decision to abandon the Tour stage finish at the summit of Mont Ventoux was justified, the loss of the Mont Brouilly stage of Paris-Nice was more hotly debated and robbed the race of a key uphill finish.
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On the Ventoux, as crowd barriers were blown over and caravans and camper vans faced being blown into oblivion, there was little option. Faced with 100 kilometres an hour winds, Tour organisation ASO moved the finishline down from the summit of the mountain to Chalet Reynard.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme insisted that there had been no choice. "We can't set up two finish lines. We're not going to play poker by saying 'Let's see tomorrow whether we put it higher or lower,'" Prudhomme said the evening before the Ventoux stage. "It was the right decision, the decision of a responsible organiser, to protect both the riders and the public".
Earlier in the year, ASO had also cancelled a stage of Paris-Nice, invoking the extreme weather protocol as sleet settled on the roads around Mont Brouilly. The steep ramps to the finish were expected to suit Alberto Contador, but it was Geraint Thomas who won overall in Nice, by just four seconds.
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