Heat wave: the Route d’Occitanie disrupted, the start of the 2nd stage from Graulhet this Friday is canceled

The essentials The heat wave is pushing the Tarn prefecture to cancel the holding of certain events scheduled for this Friday. The Route d’Occitanie – La Dépêche du Midi is no exception. The start of the 2nd stage from Graulhet is cancelled. This stage will therefore only take place in Aveyron and is shortened to about thirty kilometers. Graulhet was to be Friday, the starting town of the second stage of the Route d’Occitanie cycling race. But the strong heat announced, with a placement on red heat wave alert for the Tarn from 2 p.m., upset the plans. According to our information, the Prefect of Tarn, who has already decided to cancel the giant screen broadcast of the semi-final between Castres Olympique and Stade Toulousain on Friday evening, to the great displeasure of the municipality of Castres, has also decided to cancel the start of the second stage from Graulhet. As a result, the organizers were forced to revise their plans. Also read: VIDEO. Route d’Occitanie – La Dépêche du Midi: Arnaud Démare wins the first stage in a sprint and puts on the leader’s jersey The riders will therefore take a shortened stage this Friday. Concretely, the start will be from Aveyron, where heat wave vigilance is at the orange level, and only the last part of the stage is maintained. The city from which the race will start is Belmont-sur-Rance, and the finish will be, as initially planned, in Roquefort in Aveyron. In the end, the riders will only have 36.5 kilometers to cover, instead of the initial 154.6 kilometers, with only one difficulty on the route: the coast of Tiergues, placed 5 terminals from the finish. Disappointment in Graulhet Of course, in the city of leather, it’s a great disappointment. For months, the municipality and the associative and commercial fabric had mobilized to offer spectators, on the Place du Jourdain, a great friendly and popular celebration. Fans of the little queen were preparing to encourage the peloton which this year includes in its ranks Valverde, Woods, Quintana, Herrada or Rodriguez and Arnaud Démare, who won the first stage in the sprint this Thursday. The peloton was to start from Graulhet in the direction of Lautrec to arrive in Aveyron, at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. “We take note of this decision. What prevails is the safety of the runners and the spectators”, indicated Balise Aznar, the mayor of the city.