Vermeersch questions whether shorter Vuelta stages solve anything: 'People just race even harder'

Gianni Vermeersch has questioned whether shortening Vuelta a España stages in response to extreme heat actually solves the problem. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider told Het Nieuwsblad that reducing the distance only causes riders to race harder, a counterintuitive take on the very measure organisers applied to Sunday's stage 15 into Córdoba.

Riders have been vocal about the heat for days, calling for shorter stages, earlier start times, or outright cancellations. The organisers listened: stage 15 was cut from 189.7 kilometres to just 110.2 after activating the extreme temperature protocol. But Vermeersch is not convinced the solution works the way people think it does.

The Belgian explained that despite preparing specifically for the conditions in Spain, the relentless nature of racing in such temperatures is on another level. "I trained in Spain for a month for this Vuelta. But I have already suffered quite a bit. During training you can stop occasionally, and your body temperature drops for a moment, but when you have to race for four or five hours straight, that is really tough," he said.

Vermeersch drew a striking comparison to the weather chaos that hit the race in its opening week. Stage 3 was abandoned inside the final kilometres after a dangerous hailstorm struck on the way to Font Romeu. Riders, including then-leader Tadej Pogačar, were forced to pull off the road and seek shelter. At the time, it was a dramatic and dangerous situation. Yet Vermeersch says it pales next to the sustained heat the peloton is now facing.

His sharpest criticism, though, was aimed directly at the logic behind shortened stages. The idea is straightforward: fewer kilometres mean less time in the heat. But Vermeersch argued that the competitive reality of professional cycling makes it self-defeating.

Sunday's shortened stage into Córdoba offered a case study in exactly what Vermeersch described. Visma | Lease a Bike set a fierce pace from the start, and the 110-kilometre race turned into a relentless battle.

Wout van Aert attacked after the Puerto Artafi, bridged to a breakaway group, and powered to his second stage victory in three days, beating Alessandro Romele and Thibau Nys in a five-man sprint. Rather than easing the burden, the shorter distance concentrated the effort into an explosive race.

The heat debate has escalated rapidly in recent days. Matthew Brennan tore into the UCI on Sunday, saying the people making decisions have "the air conditioning set to 20 degrees in their office" while riders battle temperatures above 40°C on the road. Five riders abandoned during stage 14 alone, including key Visma domestique Christophe Laporte, and earlier in the race Arthur Kluckers was hospitalised with heatstroke.

The peloton now has Monday's second rest day to recover, but there is little relief on the horizon. The final week takes the race through Huelva, Sevilla, Jerez, and eventually the finish in Granada, all in southern Spain's interior where temperatures are expected to remain punishing.

Steven Kruijswijk has replaced Enric Mas as one of the peloton's CPA representatives to continue negotiations about potential adjustments for the days ahead.

Whether those adjustments will include further shortened stages remains to be seen. If they do, Vermeersch's argument will linger: a shorter race may simply be a faster one, and faster does not mean safer.